The first phase of World Cup 2022 also known as the group stage has finally come to an end. The 32 teams that started the biggest tournament in football have now come down to 16. This is a knock out round where 8 teams will progress to the quarter finals. More drama is expected in this round after already witnessing some of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament during the group stages which have been marked by the exits of giants Germany and Belgium. For those who missed, these are the results that shocked World Football - Argentina 1 - 2 Saudi Arabia - Germany 1 - 2 Japan - Belgium 0 - 2 Morocco - South Korea 2 - 3 Ghana - Tunisia 1 - 0 France - Japan 2 - 1 Spain - South Korea 2 - 1 Portugal - Cameroon 1 - 0 Brazil Group E offered us the best drama as at some point during the last fixture each team was destined to qualify for the next round. For a few minutes actually, the clear favorites in the group, Germany and Spain were exiting. And it finally ended with the former world champions Germany exiting after finishing in 3rd place. And Japan and Spain progressing to the next round. ![20221201191212-638943799f1487fd7cfaecbejpeg.webp](https://images.hive.blog/DQmX4DiT8hcsR79UoiYPFbKBv5QEdut1e24ziTZ81FtXDgJ/20221201191212-638943799f1487fd7cfaecbejpeg.webp) [credit](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.thestar.com%2F_r2P8LkPfHigEOXE3yhSCbFq5V8%3D%2F1086x869%2Fsmart%2Ffilters%3Acb(1669995741600)%3Aformat(webp)%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fthestar%2Fsports%2Fsoccer%2F2022%2F12%2F01%2Fgermanys-soul-searching-begins-after-another-world-cup-flop%2F20221201191212-638943799f1487fd7cfaecbejpeg.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Fsports%2Fsoccer%2F2022%2F12%2F02%2Fgermanys-soul-searching-begins-after-another-world-cup-flop.html&tbnid=hrq2eHK8N2B0HM&vet=12ahUKEwjo947P1937AhUOUBoKHdfBCBsQMyg0egQIARA7..i&docid=SjgUwTKWPa5QwM&w=1086&h=869&q=image%20of%20world%20cup%20germany%20knocked%20out&ved=2ahUKEwjo947P1937AhUOUBoKHdfBCBsQMyg0egQIARA7)

Here is an overview of how the group stages concluded;

Group A Who's through: Netherlands and Senegal Who's out: Ecuador and Qatar Group B Who's through: England and USA Who's out: Iran and Wales Group C Who's through: Argentina and Poland Who's out: Mexico and Saudi Arabia Group D Who's through: France and Australia Who's out: Tunisia and Denmark Group E Who's through: Japan and Spain Who's out: Germany and Costa Rica Group F Who's through: Morocco and Croatia Who's out: Belgium and Canada Group G Who's through: Brazil and Switzerland Who's out: Cameroon and Serbia Group H Who's through: Portugal and South Korea Who's out: Uruguay and Ghana Aside from Germany and Belgium that have exited the tournament, the rest of the favorites to win World Cup are still in it. The likes of France, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Spain. Here is how all the teams will be facing each other in the round of 16 plus their timings. Date|Time(GMT)|Teams -|-|- 3rd Dec| 3:00pm |Netherlands Vs USA 3rd Dec| 7:00pm |Argentina Vs Australia 4th Dec| 3:00pm |France Vs Poland 4th Dec| 7:00pm |England Vs Senegal 5th Dec| 3:00pm |Japan Vs Croatia 5rd Dec| 7:00pm |Brazil Vs South Korea 6th Dec| 3:00pm |Morocco Vs Spain 6th Dec| 7:00pm |Portugal Vs Switzerland Just like it has gone down in the group stages, we should be in for some more upsets that will continue making the tournament exciting. We have to admit, most of us are backing the underdogs to upset the giant teams as long as it's not the teams we are supporting. Unfortunately the upsets have not done me good on the @hivebuzz contest. I was mostly predicting the giant teams to beat the inferior teams which didn't come to pass many times, that's the reason why am in position 412 in the rankings currently with just 12 points. I will continue predicting the giant teams to win their games. Hope I accumulate more points.