Asia sets record at World Cup 2022

In Group D, Australia lost in turn to defending champion France 1-4, and then defeated Tunisia and Denmark with the same score of 1-0. They have six points, equal to France, but behind because of the difference and will meet Argentina in the 1/8 round. Australia - ranked 38th - is also the lowest ranked team on the FIFA rankings.

In Group E, Japan made a splash when coming upstream to defeat Germany 2-1 in the opening leg. This is the first time Japan has won when it was led to halftime at the World Cup. After losing to Costa Rica 0-1, Japan created another battlefield when they defeated Spain 1-2 again. For the first time, Japan beat Spain. It is also the first time they have knocked down two former champions, the two forces of world football right in the group stage of the World Cup. Thanks to that, the army under Moriyasu Hajime led the death table, and pushed Germany out of the game.

Yesterday, Korea continued to write history when it beat Portugal 2-1 to slip through the narrow door into the 1/8 round. Son Heung-min and his teammates stood around in a circle in the middle of the field, using their phones to watch the last minutes of the Uruguay and Ghana matches before bursting with emotion. Korea and Uruguay share four points and a difference of +0. But the Asian representative ranked above Uruguay thanks to more goals (4 vs 3), and followed the top of the Portuguese group into the 1/8 round.

Before that, Asia had only two teams to pass the group stage in the 2002 and 2010 tournaments. In 2002, Japan and Korea, also the two co-hosts, advanced. Korea that year also made a miracle when it reached the semi-finals. By 2010 in South Africa, Japan and South Korea re-established the achievement when entering the 1/8 round, but stopped there.

With the Netherlands, USA, England, Croatia, Morocco, this year's tournament also saw the fewest teams unbeaten in the group stage, since 1994 with 4 teams. The record for the most number of unbeaten teams through the group stage belonged to 1998 and 2002, with 12 teams.

There were 18 players scoring twice, with Lionel Messi, Richarlison, Andrej Kramaric, Bukayo Saka, Olivier Giroud, Ritsu Doan, Bruno Fernandes, Cho Gue-sung, Ferran Torres and Breel Embolo continuing to play in the round of 16.

After the group stage, there were four coaches leaving the team: Robert Martinez, Tata Martino (Mexico), Carlos Queiroz (Iran) and Otto Addo (Ghana).