Departure time: the World Cup play-off stage has begun

At the FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, the most interesting part has begun — the playoffs. On the evening of June 28, Canada's match against South Africa kicked off the 1/16 finals. The remaining 15 games of this stage will be played until July 4. Meanwhile, following the results of the group stage, 16 teams have already left the tournament.

Heavy Iran

The main intrigue in the fight for entry into the playoffs can be considered Iran's attempt to get out of the group, despite the harassment that the American authorities organized as organizers. The team was allowed to fly to the United States from its base in Mexico only on the pre-match day, and was also forced to fly back immediately after the games.

At the same time, parts of the delegation from the coaching and medical staffs were not issued American visas at all. Taking into account all the circumstances, the national team of the Islamic Republic showed a good result without losing a single match. However, she didn't manage to win either.

The three draws were of different quality. The first misfire in the game against the outsider of the group, New Zealand (2:2), seemed fatal, but Iran was able to take points in games with stronger rivals — Belgium (0:0) and Egypt (1:1). But it wasn't enough.

A victory in one of these games would have given the Iranians the opportunity to get out of second place and safely make it to the playoffs, but in the end they finished third and found themselves depending on the results in other groups. The eight best third-place teams advanced to the 1/16 finals.

Iran turned out to be the ninth among such teams, losing in additional indicators to Senegal, which scored the same number of points. South Korea, Scotland and Uruguay also dropped out of the third teams. The Czech Republic, Qatar, Haiti, Turkey, Curacao, Tunisia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Panama left the tournament from the last fourth places in their groups.

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The playoffs

One of the main features of the playoff grid formed following the results of the group stage is the impossibility of crossing the national teams of Argentina and Portugal before the final. Thus, a face-to-face confrontation between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo can only happen in a decisive game.

At the same time, Cristiano will face another star 40-year—old veteran in the 1/16 finals - his long-term partner at Real Madrid, Luka Modric. His Croatian national team was among the medalists of the last two World Championships — silver in Russia in 2018 and bronze in Qatar in 2022. And now he will try to repeat the success. Of the second-place teams in the group, it is the Balkan team that looks the most preferable.

The Croats won against Panama (1-0) and Ghana (2-1) and lost to England (2-4) in an equally bright game. At the same time, Portugal had an extremely mediocre group stage, losing first place to Colombia. She drew with her (0-0). But there were a lot more questions for the team from the Iberian Peninsula because of the opening draw with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1:1).

Only Uzbekistan, the debutant of the World Cup, managed to win (5:0), which turned out to be one of the weakest teams at the World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in this game.

"Portugal's game is largely based on Cristiano," Anatoly Byshovets, the former head coach of the USSR national team, told Izvestia. — Therefore, if his game is not going well, then the whole team has problems. So far, it is difficult for Ronaldo to show his leadership qualities at this tournament, unlike Messi, who is very productive, and Argentina is holding the tournament well due to him. Of course, a master like Cristiano is able to "explode" at the right moment and return to his best level. But if he doesn't improve compared to the games against DR Congo and Colombia, then Portugal will have little chance in the game against Croatia. This team is less dependent on its veteran leader, while Modric himself shows himself well and plays more for his partners.

Argentina will play in the 1/16 finals with the main sensation of the Cape Verde tournament. This is the first time this team has competed at the World Cup and has not lost a single match. She scored three points due to three draws, but unlike Iran, it was enough for her to get out of the group, since in her quartet such an indicator allowed her to take third place, above Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.

Cape Verde's main achievement was a draw with the reigning European champion Spain (0-0). Now there will be an attempt to impose a fight on the reigning world champion, whose head coach, Lionel Scaloni, rested Messi in the last group game against Jordan (3-1), who came on as a substitute only in the 60th minute.

Colombia's match against Ghana in the early morning of July 4 will end the 1/16 finals. And in the evening of the same day, the next stage of the playoffs starts.