The World Cup in Qatar, the first in the Middle East, is also the Cup of geographical diversity.
For the first time in the history of the World Cup, countries from six different areas of the globe qualified for the knockout rounds: Europe (8), South America (2), North America (1), Africa (2), Asia (2 ) and Oceania (1).
The previous record, since the Cup started to have the round of 16 in the current format (1986), belonged to five Cups (1994, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014), when teams from five different geographic positions qualified.
Europe, which started the competition with 13 teams, qualified eight of them for the knockout rounds of this World Cup: Holland, England, Poland, France, Spain, Croatia, Switzerland and Portugal.
South America, with four representatives, remains in the Cup with half of them: Brazil and Argentina passed; Uruguay and Ecuador, no.
From North America, the USA advanced and will try this Saturday (3) to eliminate Holland. Mexico and Canada, who lost all three of their matches, were short-lived at the Worlds.
Of the Asians, Japan defeated in its group the powerful Germany, which is eliminated, and Spain.
South Korea also did well, overcoming Portugal in the final round to come second in their group.
The host Qatar, with three defeats in three games, Saudi Arabia and Iran were on the way.
Africa qualifiers are Senegal and Morocco. Tunisia, Ghana and Cameroon, despite having won one game each in their respective groups, failed to reach the knockout stage.
For Oceania, Australia, the biggest surprise of the Cup along with Morocco, won two of the three matches and will have a herculean challenge this Saturday against Messi’s Argentina.
The Australians, geographically located in that region, dispute the Qualifiers for the World Cup together with the countries of Asia.
The reason? Increase their own chances of qualifying for the Cup, since Oceania does not have a guaranteed place – the champion of its qualification still has to overcome a selection from another region to get a place in the World Cup.
The Asian Qualifiers offer four direct spots and one duel with a country from another continent.
During the Sepp Blatter administration (1998-2015), FIFA, in a political decision, accepted, as of the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers, that Australia “change continents”, which also satisfied the other nations of Oceania, previously with chances ridiculous to go to the World Cup due to the football inferiority before the Australians.
Finally, in this Cup, the only Central American team in Qatar, Costa Rica, stopped in the first phase.
Another unprecedented achievement, which indicates balance in the tournament, is that no team reached 100% success in the group stage.
This is the first time this has happened since 1998, when the 32-team format started.
The regions in the octaves
- 2022 – 6 regions
- Europe (8)
- South America (2)
- Africa (2)
- Asia (2)
- North America (1)
- Oceania (1)
- 2018 – 4 regions
- Europe (10)
- South America (4)
- Asia (1)
- North America (1)
- 2014 – 5 regions
- Europe (6)
- South America (5)
- Africa (2)
- North America (2)
- Central America (1)
- 2010 – 5 regions
- Europe (7)
- South America (4)
- Asia (2)
- North America (2)
- Africa (1)
- 2006 – 5 regions
- Europe (10)
- South America (3)
- Oceania (1)
- Africa (1)
- North America (1)
- 2002 – 5 regions
- Europe (9)
- South America (2)
- Asia (2)
- North America (2)
- Africa (1)
- 1998 – 4 regions
- Europe (10)
- South America (4)
- Africa (1)
- North America (1)
- 1994 – 5 regions🇧🇷
- nineteen ninety – 4 regions🇧🇷
- 1986 – 4 regions🇧🇷
* Number of teams was smaller, with only 24 countries in the Cup
cup without dominance
Another outstanding record in the World Cup in Qatar is the absence of a selection with 100% success in the group stage, which had never happened in the current dispute format, since the 1998 World Cup, in France.
The best first-phase campaigns in this competition were from the Netherlands, England and Morocco, with two wins and a draw each.
The editions that had the most “perfect” teams before the knockout stage were those held in 2014, in Brazil, and 2006, in Germany, both with four teams that added three victories in their brackets
In 2018, in Russia, three countries achieved this: Uruguay, Belgium and Croatia, the latter being defeated by France in the decision.
The 1998, 2002 and 2010 World Cups each had two countries with 100% success in the group stage.
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