In Belgium, this team is considered their golden generation. But the side build around De Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois is leaving yet another tournament without a title and this time, and for the first time in this century, the Belgians have been knocked out at the group stage.
The team, which has suffered from internal division, ended its journey in Qatar with a goalless draw against Croatia. It could all have turned out differently, though, if Romelu Lukaku had taken some of his chances.
The Red Devils' star striker struck at goal a total of five times, with four situations being deemed as genuine scoring opportunities. He threw all of them away. No player has gotten so many chances in a single match at this tournament. And that is what ultimately decided Belgium's exit.
It is a little unfair to blame it solely on Lukaku. The Belgians had a total of 15 shots at goal. As you can see from the white dots here, which show the shots on target, they were just not very successful in front of goal at all.
We can close the chapter on Belgium at the 2022 World Cup by simply looking at this graphic for expected goals. The Belgians had chances to score what should amount to three goals in this match. Having failed to capitalise on any of them, they are rightly packing their bags and heading home.
See Croatia vs Belgium at Flashscore
Morocco are the second African team to advance to the round of 16 in Qatar. This is only the second time in history that Africa can boast such a statistic. Moreover, Morocco dominated a tough group including Belgium and Croatia and is the first African group winner since Nigeria in 1998.
One of the main architects of Morocco's success is Chelsea midfielder Hakim Ziyech. He opened the scoring against Canada and you can see from his heat map that he helped the team both offensively and towards the back. Thanks to him, Morocco won the group and confirmed Canada's dismal World Cup record - they have now lost all six of their six games at the World Cup in history.
See Canada vs Morocco at Flashscore
For the second straight time, the Germans have exited the World Cup at the group stage. They had plenty of chances against Costa Rica, but given the outcome of the concurrent Spain-Japan game, they would have had to win by eight goals to advance. Their 4-2 win was close but not close enough.
The Germans had an incredible total of 32 shots in this match. 11 of them were on target, too. But they were burning chances for a long time and once they started to score, it was clear that there was too little time to score five more.
Kai Havertz had a big influence on Germay’s victory. He came on in the 66th minute, scored two goals and came close to a hat-trick. He became only the second German ever to score two goals in World Cup match after coming on as a substitute. But, on the lonely plane ride home from Qatar, he probably won't care too much for that statistic.
See Costa Rica vs Germany at Flashscore
The Spanish said goodbye to the group stage, but not the World Cup, with an unexpected defeat. After already beating Germany, the Japanese outclassed the other favourite in this group, and remarkably finished in top spot.
Against Spain, they turned around a halftime deficit with two quick goals just after the break and then held on to their lead with some dogged defending.
Beating the Japanese may not be easy even in the latter stages of this World Cup. And this is evidenced by the expected goals recorded in the match with Spain.
This stat tells us that this surprising result was not just caused by Spain wasting chances. Because the Japanese defence didn't allow the Spanish to create too many dangerous opportunities despite having so much of the ball. In the end the Asian side actually ended up with a higher xG than Spain.
When we look at the momentum of this match, that is which team dominated throughout, we can see that the Spanish were in control for most of the game. But it was passive domination, which was probably exactly the Japanese game plan all along.
Japan have become only the third team in the history of the World Cup to turn around two games in which they were trailing at halftime in the same tournament.
See Japan vs Spain at Flashscore
So you see, Gary Lineker's famous line about football always being won by the Germans doesn't seem to apply anymore, does it? After the surprising developments in Groups E and F, Spain will face Morocco and Japan will face Croatia in the round of 16.
See you tomorrow for our next data review!
