Dream Runs and Nightmares: The Biggest Surprises and Disappointments of the 2026 World Cup So Far
Every World Cup redraws football's map, but this one has taken a marker to it. Brazil are gone before the quarter-finals. Germany are gone before the Round of 16. Norway have never had it so good, Egypt are writing history, and the smallest nation ever to qualify left with a goalkeeping record. As the tournament reaches the last eight, here are the countries flying home heroes — and the ones flying home with questions.
THE SURPRISES
Norway: From Absentees to Brazil's Executioners
No team has torn up the script quite like Norway. Back at the World Cup after decades away, StÃ¥le Solbakken's side finished second in their group behind France, edged Ivory Coast, and then produced the result of the tournament — beating Brazil 2-1 through an Erling Haaland brace, surviving a missed Brazilian penalty along the way, to reach the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time in their history. England now await in Miami, and nobody is calling it a mismatch. Source: World Soccer Talk
Morocco and Egypt: Africa's Tournament Within the Tournament
Morocco proved 2022 was no fairytale one-off. They drew with Brazil, knocked out the Netherlands on penalties after Issa Diop's dramatic late equaliser, then dismantled co-hosts Canada 3-0 — becoming the first African nation ever to reach back-to-back World Cup quarter-finals, where a revenge date with France awaits. Source: FIFA
Egypt, meanwhile, have gone somewhere they had never been. Their penalty-shootout win over Australia — capped by Mohamed Salah's outrageous Panenka — was the first knockout victory in their World Cup history, and only a date with Messi's Argentina stands between them and a first African quarter-final for the Pharaohs. Source: Sports Mole
Paraguay: The Giant-Killers Nobody Saw Coming
Paraguay's reward for eliminating four-time champions Germany on penalties was a Round of 16 exit to France by a single disputed spot kick — but their place among the tournament's surprises is secure. Holding Germany 1-1 through 120 minutes and winning the shootout 4-3 handed the Germans their first-ever World Cup penalty defeat, one of the biggest upsets of the competition. Source: DID Press
Cape Verde and Curaçao: The Minnows Who Stole Hearts
Debutants Cape Verde came within twelve minutes of the greatest upset in knockout history, twice pegging back champions Argentina and firing sixteen shots at their goal before an 111th-minute own goal finally ended a 3-2 extra-time epic. Their 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha left as one of the faces of the tournament. Source: Sports Mole
And then there was Curaçao — the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup. They briefly led mighty Germany level before losing 7-1, then held Ecuador to a goalless draw in which goalkeeper Eloy Room made fifteen saves, equalling Tim Howard's legendary World Cup record. ESPN's verdict was simple: Curaçao and Room won't be forgotten at this World Cup. Source: ESPN
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
Brazil: A Farewell in Tears
The five-time champions arrived under Carlo Ancelotti with pedigree and left with a crisis. Warned by their near-death experience against Japan — where only Gabriel Martinelli's late winner spared them in the Round of 32 — Brazil could not survive a second scare, falling 2-1 to Norway despite dominating chances and missing a penalty. The image of the tournament's saddest night followed: Neymar, Brazil's all-time leading scorer, announcing his international retirement in tears after his final World Cup ended a round earlier than the nation ever imagined. Source: Goal
Germany: A Crisis That Will Not End
Germany's group stage had its wobbles — including that early Curaçao scare and a defeat to Ecuador — but the true humiliation came in the Round of 32. Jonathan Tah's extra-time goal against Paraguay was disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper, a call Julian Nagelsmann branded "a joke," and the four-time champions lost the shootout 4-3. After group-stage exits in 2018 and 2022, a Round of 32 elimination in 2026 confirms what German fans feared: this is not a blip, it is an era. Source: Wikipedia — 2026 World Cup controversies
The Netherlands and Senegal: Knockout Heartbreak
The Netherlands joined Germany on the same brutal night, edged out by Morocco 3-2 on penalties after conceding that stoppage-time Diop equaliser. Senegal's exit was crueller still: 2-0 up on Belgium with seven minutes left, they lost 3-2 in extra time to a 118th-minute VAR-awarded penalty that remains one of the most disputed decisions of the tournament. Source: DID Press
Türkiye: The Dark Horses Who Never Ran
Nobody fell harder than Türkiye. Tipped as dark horses with a squad built around Arda Güler and Kenan Yıldız, they were eliminated before Matchday 3 — and produced a statistic for the ages, registering 62 shots across two games without scoring, the most shots without a goal by any team at a single World Cup since 1966. Güler publicly apologised to the fans; a consolation win over a rotated USA side was scant comfort. Source: ESPN
South Korea, Uruguay, Scotland and Tunisia: Group-Stage Casualties
In a 48-team format where only sixteen sides go home early, falling at the group stage stings twice as much. South Korea won their opener against Czechia and then lost to Mexico and South Africa — meaning Son Heung-min will be 37 before his next World Cup chance. Uruguay's two-point exit was arguably the most shocking of all. Scotland barely laid a glove on Morocco or Brazil, and manager Steve Clarke resigned just thirty days after signing a contract to 2030. And Tunisia earned the harshest label of the summer — Sports Illustrated called them the tournament's worst team without question, after Sabri Lamouchi became the first coach in World Cup history sacked after Matchday 1, and not even Hervé Renard could stop the bleeding. Source: Sports Illustrated
The Hosts: Proud Runs, Painful Endings
Two of the three co-hosts fall somewhere between the categories. Canada reached the Round of 16 but were swept aside 3-0 by Morocco, with coach Jesse Marsch facing questions for leaving Alphonso Davies unused. Mexico went out in the most agonising way imaginable — a 3-2 defeat to England that ended their famous unbeaten record at the Azteca, in front of their own supporters. Only the USA carry the hosts' flag into the quarter-final picture, with Belgium standing in their way in Seattle. Source: World Soccer Talk
What It All Means
The doubters said a 48-team World Cup would dilute the quality. Instead, the expanded field has delivered the opposite: minnows punching above their weight, giants punished for the slightest complacency, and a knockout bracket where Norway and Egypt stand alongside France and Spain with straight faces. Sports Illustrated put it best after the group stage — the feared dilution never came, but the overperformance of some inevitably meant heartbreak for others. With eight teams left and at least one more shock statistically overdue, the safest prediction of this World Cup is that it is not done surprising us. Source: Sports Illustrated
