The first rounds of the 2022 World Cup are nearly over, with the round-robin group stages about to finish on Friday. The remaining top-two teams in each group will be moving on to the knockout stages, in win-or-go-home games next.
But before we look ahead, we have to look back. Because there are some surprises when it comes to certain national teams who failed to be top-two in their groups.
It’s bound to happen, right? After all, the World Cup has the best of the best, and any tournament is never going to be completely chalk.
So let’s run through some of the more surprising teams to miss moving on: