by Paul Giblin

DOHA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The World Cup finals in Qatar move seamlessly from their group stages into the knockout stage on Saturday, promising more drama and tension, with the prospect of extra time and penalty shootouts to keep spectators on the edge of their seats.

The knockout stage of the World Cup usually produces moments of high drama, as the teams are slowly whittled down until only the best remain and that of course tend to produce closer games, decided by the smallest of factors.

If the group stages are anything to go by, 2022 is set for some thrillers, because the groups were the closest in history.

For a start, no side has made it into the last-16 winning all three of their group games. It is true that some sides, such as France, Portugal and Brazil made a lot of changes to their teams after assuring qualification after two matches, but they all lost their final match, with France falling to Tunisia, while Portugal and Brazil went down to South Korea and Cameroon respectively.

While nobody was able to take a 100 percent record: only five teams: England, Netherlands, Morocco, Croatia and the USA remained unbeaten, with the first three qualifying with two wins and a draw, while Croatia and the USA went through with a win and two draws.

The other side of the coin saw only two teams, Canada and Qatar, lose their three group matches, with Canada losing two of their matches by a solitary goal. Meanwhile only Serbia, Canada, Qatar, Denmark and Wales failed to win a game, meaning that 27 of the 32 teams in Qatar were able to celebrate at least one victory.

All of this seems to point to a much-greater equality in the World game and the group stages saw plenty of surprises to back that up, starting with Saudi Arabia's win over Argentina and carrying on with Japan's victories over Spain and Germany and Morocco's win against Denmark (if we can call those surprises), South Korea beating Portugal, Cameroon claiming the first ever African success over Brazil and even Australia reaching the last-16.

South Korea, Japan and Australia (who qualified through the Asian group) will represent the Asian game in the knockout stage, while Senegal and Morocco fly the flag for Africa.

Meanwhile Tunisia and Cameroon claimed historic wins, while Iran and Saudi Arabia can also go home with pride.

Some big teams have fallen by the wayside, with Denmark, Germany and Belgium among European heavyweights who watch the rest of the tournament from the sofa, while Uruguay and Mexico would also have expected to reach at least the last-16.

The game is changing: traditional strong teams can no longer take success for granted as Asian and African sides continue to grow stronger, thanks in part to ever-increasing number of players competing in top leagues and their own domestic competitions growing stronger as they attract experienced players and coaches and also count on players returning after playing abroad.

With the tournament set to expand in future editions, more teams from these regions will no doubt get their chance and we are reaching a moment when no result can really be considered to be a major surprise, because when surprises happen all the time, they become the norm. Enditem

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