SuperBafanaStars

Ten African teams—the most there has ever been in the tournament. Nine of them went to the World Cup Round of 32. Two of them qualified for the Round of 16. One nation advanced to the quarterfinals. With Morocco’s loss to France, that leaves one South American team and six European teams. The originally scheduled Finalissima between Argentina and Spain, which was canceled due to the war in Iran, could happen, but in the form of a World Cup final.  

For the African teams, it’s not too bad of a performance. But there’s a lot of room for improvement. 

90% of the CAF teams in the World Cup advanced to the Round of 32, which is more than any other confederation. However, in terms of making it to the Round of 16, there was a massive drop in African teams advancing where only 22% made it, the second worst rate of any confederation (the Asian Football Confederation had 0 teams advance to the Round of 16).  

Morocco was the only African team to make it to the quarterfinals, but they lost now to France and they won’t be in the final four like last time in 2022. 

Of course, with the expanded format and the inclusion of third-place teams, it made a lot teams, especially CAF member associations, advance past the group stage. Even with this change, the number of African teams progressing to the knockout stage (some for the first time in history) is worth celebrating. 

Yet still, some more work needs to be done.