Messi in the Driving Seat in the Golden Boot Race as the World Cup Enters the Knockout Stage

So the third and final round of the World Cup group stage is complete and all the round of 32 ties have been set. We have several tougher matchups to look forward to already in the next phase, and we now have to say goodbye to 16 nations.

Vinícius Júnior scored twice against Scotland and is now joint second in the scoring chart

Messi Pushes On at the Top of the Scoring Chart - How the Favourites Are Doing

Argentina allowed most of their first-choice lineup to rest in the match against Jordan, as they had already secured top spot in the group, and this meant that Lionel Messi started on the bench. Messi did come on in the 60th minute, however, and in the 80th minute he scored his sixth goal of the group stage with a free kick. He now leads the scoring chart by two goals ahead of the start of the knockout phase.

Norway rested almost their entire first-choice lineup when they faced France in the battle for first place in the group, which quite clearly suggests that they preferred to face Ivory Coast rather than Sweden in the round of 32. This meant that Erling Haaland rested for the whole match and therefore remains on four goals.

France, for their part, fielded their strongest team against Norway. They were clearly going for top spot in the group, and this led to them completely overpowering the Norwegians and winning 4-1. Despite four French goals, Kylian Mbappé himself failed to score. Instead, it was Ousmane Dembélé who was primarily responsible for the goals, scoring a hat-trick in the first half (Mbappé assisted two of them). With Dembélé's three goals, both he and Mbappé are on four goals each after the group stage.

Brazil beat Scotland comfortably 3-0 in their final group-stage match, and two of the goals were scored by Vinícius Júnior. Since he had scored one goal in each of Brazil's first two group-stage matches, he has now also reached four goals.

Harry Kane started the tournament well with two goals against Croatia but failed to score in England's second match against Ghana. In the final match against Panama, however, he managed to get his third goal of the tournament with a header from a Jude Bellingham cross (Bellingham had scored England's first goal in the match). England won the match 2-0 and Kane, with his three goals, is still within reach of the top of the scoring chart.

Cristiano Ronaldo came to life in Portugal's second match and scored twice against Uzbekistan, but in the final group-stage match against Colombia he once again left the pitch without a goal. The match ended 0-0, which meant that Colombia won the group. With only two goals scored, it will probably be difficult for the veteran to get involved in the battle for the Golden Boot.

Senegal's Ismaïla Sarr is one of the players who has scored three goals

Ten Players on Three Goals Each

Behind the top names, a group of players follows on three goals each. Harry Kane, as mentioned, is one of them. Apart from New Zealand's Elijah Just, all of these players are also in teams that have reached the round of 32, and therefore they must still be considered part of the race for the Golden Boot. The other eight players (apart from Kane and Just) who are on three goals after the group stage are as follows:

Brian Brobbey, Netherlands - followed up his two goals against Sweden in the second round with a goal in the 3-1 win over Tunisia
Deniz Undav, Germany - started on the bench in the final round against Ecuador despite his fine record, came on as a substitute but did not score
Ismael Saibari, Morocco - scored another goal in the 4-2 win over Haiti and is one of four players to have scored in every match of the group stage
Ismaïla Sarr, Senegal - the fourth player (alongside Messi, Vinícius Júnior and Saibari) to have scored in every match of the group stage
Johan Manzambi, Switzerland - the young Swiss player made a major impact with two goals as a substitute in the second round against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the final round against Canada he started the match and provided both a goal and an assist
Jonathan David, Canada - is on three goals thanks to his hat-trick in the second round against Qatar
Matheus Cunha, Brazil - two goals in the second round against Haiti were followed by another goal against Scotland
Yoane Wissa, DR Congo - the Newcastle player scored two of his team's goals against Uzbekistan in the match that secured their historic place in the round of 32, while his first came in the 1-1 match against Portugal in the opener

The Upcoming Round of 32 Ties

Already in the next phase, we will get to see some really interesting matchups. The Netherlands will face Morocco. Partly because these are two very strong teams going up against each other, but an extra spice is, of course, that many players in Morocco's team were born and raised in the Netherlands but chose to represent Morocco at international level.

Brazil against Japan is another highly interesting match. Japan are many experts' big dark horse in this tournament, and they also beat Brazil in a friendly as recently as October 2025.

Portugal against Croatia will also be highly interesting. Croatia may not be quite as good as they used to be, but the team is still full of experience, while Portugal have not impressed at all so far, so the match feels very open beforehand.

These are all the upcoming round of 32 ties:

South Africa - Canada
Brazil - Japan
Germany - Paraguay
Netherlands - Morocco
Ivory Coast - Norway
France - Sweden
Mexico - Ecuador
England - DR Congo
Belgium - Senegal
USA - Bosnia and Herzegovina
Spain - Austria
Portugal - Croatia
Switzerland - Algeria
Australia - Egypt
Argentina - Cape Verde
Colombia - Ghana

The Teams Whose World Cup Is Over

Of the teams that failed to progress, Turkey were perhaps the biggest disappointment, but they had already been eliminated after the second round, and the fact that they managed to beat the USA 3-2 in the final round is surely only small consolation. Apart from Turkey, we also have to say goodbye to the following nations:

Czech Republic
Qatar
Haiti
Curaçao
Tunisia
New Zealand
Uruguay
Saudi Arabia
Scotland
South Korea
Iraq
Iran
Jordan
Uzbekistan
Panama

Eldor Shomurodov and his Uzbekistan did not have a successful World Cup debut

How Have the World Cup Debutants Done?

Before the World Cup, we wrote an article about the four nations playing their first ever World Cup, and we thought we would take a look at how they did during their first ever World Cup matches. The fact is that one of the nations made it through to the round of 32.

We begin with the team that did best and progressed in the tournament, and the nation that managed this was Cape Verde. The African island nation opened the first round with one of the tournament's biggest surprises so far when they drew 0-0 with one of the major favourites, Spain. This was followed by a 2-2 match against Uruguay, where they took the lead through Kevin Pina (who thereby scored the nation's first ever World Cup goal), fell behind 1-2 but managed to equalise in the second half through Hélio Varela. In the final round against Saudi Arabia, they played their second 0-0 match, and three draws were actually enough for second place in the group. Next up are the reigning champions Argentina, and although few give Cape Verde much chance of going through, it is not impossible that they can make things difficult for Messi and company. After all, they are still unbeaten.

Another island nation making its debut was Curaçao, and although they were not close to progressing from their group, they did at least take a point in the 0-0 match against Ecuador in the second round. It had started much more heavily with a 7-1 defeat against Germany in the first round, and they finished with a 2-0 defeat against Ivory Coast. Considering how small Curaçao is as a country, it is still fair to say that they can be both satisfied and proud of their performance in this World Cup.

Jordan opened with a 3-1 defeat against Austria and followed that match with a 2-1 defeat against Algeria, a match in which they had actually led after the first half but conceded the losing goal in the 82nd minute. As a result, third place was out of reach (because of the head-to-head rule), and therefore they only had pride to play for in the match against Argentina. However, they also lost to Argentina, 3-1, despite the fact that Argentina fielded a reserve-heavy team. Jordan did not get any points in their World Cup debut, but they can at least take some comfort from having scored in every match.

Finally, we have Uzbekistan, the debutant that many believed had the best chance among the newcomers of progressing before the World Cup. It started, however, with a 3-1 defeat against Colombia and was followed by a heavy 5-0 defeat against Portugal. Ahead of the final match against DR Congo, they did admittedly still have a chance to go through as one of the best third-placed teams, but because of their poor goal difference they really needed to thrash DR Congo for that to be possible. Instead, they suffered a 3-1 defeat, and Uzbekistan's World Cup debut did not turn out as they had hoped.