World Cup 2026 Power Rankings: Spain rule, but where did the other 47 finish?
It’s done. At last, it’s done.
The heftiest of World Cups is over as 104 games ended, fittingly, with the longest final on record thanks to extra-time, where some muppets disgraced their legacy, and the half-time show, where some Muppets disgraced their legacy.
At the end of it all, it was Spain and Rodri rather than Argentina and Messi awkwardly waiting for Donald Trump to leave the stage so they could do the trophy lift.
We know, then, who was first and second. And indeed third and fourth thanks to England and France treating the rebadged-it-you-fool Bronze Final with exactly the correct amount of care and attention. But how did all 48 teams measure up? Like this…
48) Tunisia
More manager sackings than points rarely results in a successful World Cup campaign. Were knocked out after losing their first two games by four goals, meaning a mere 3-1 defeat against the Dutch goes down as the high point of a truly rotten campaign.
47) Haiti
Returned to the World Cup for the first time in over half a century. The first time they lost all three games. This time… they lost all three games.
Their first game this time out against Scotland was absolutely enormous for both sides and it did not go their way. Their second against Brazil definitely didn’t but there were at least goals and some fight in defeat against Morocco on matchday three. They had only pride to play for, but showed plenty of it.
46) Czech Republic
Deeply disappointing effort having got as good a result from the draw as a UEFA play-off winner – and thus pot-four dweller – could ask for. A single point from a group containing South Korea, South Africa and Mexico was nowhere near the expected return.
45) Turkey
The biggest disappointment of the entire tournament having already got themselves eliminated after two games with no points and no goals. And they weren’t even in a difficult group having gone down to Australia and 10-man Paraguay.
Get the lowest amount of credit possible for registering a win when it was already too late against a USA side that had already won the group.
44) Jordan
Another first-time qualifier from the Asian section, they were already knocked out after suffering two defeats in their opening games. Unlike Henderson, Pickford, Ayew and Bos, there will be no knockout football at the 2026 World Cup for this Jordan.
43) Panama
Agonisingly close to securing their first ever World Cup point before Ghana’s late heartbreaker in Ontario. Lost by the only goal again against Croatia and were left playing only for pride in the final game against England. Showed plenty of it in holding England off for more than an hour before going down 2-0. A far cry from eight years ago at least, when it was 5-0 at half-time.
42) Qatar
At least they managed a point this time. But their effort at the first World Cup for which they qualified through on-field endeavour will be best remembered for the fearful beating they suffered against Canada.
41) Curacao
Held off Jamaica to qualify for their first ever World Cup and in doing so become the smallest ever nation – both in population and area – ever to make it to the finals.
It’s a miracle they got here and they contributed more to the vibe than some far bigger nations. Their goal against Germany, however futile in the end, was a wonderful moment and the goalless draw against Ecuador heroic.
They leave the tournament with heads held high.
40) Uzbekistan
Two heavy defeats before losing from 1-0 up against DR Congo. Colombia and Portugal was always likely to prove a tough start to World Cup life for the debutants.
39) Iraq
Did a lot of good things in their defeats to Norway and France. But they were two heavy defeats, both featuring different goalkeepers donating goals infuriatingly cheaply to two players who absolutely do not require such assistance in Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
Penchant for self-sabotage continued with an early red card and then second-half collapse against Senegal. It was never likely to be a group they could hope to get out of, but the fact they played as well as they did in patches and yet made the errors they did is undeniably irritating.
38) New Zealand
Extended their unbeaten run after a draw-filled exit last time they made the finals with an opening draw against Iran before thumping defeats against Egypt and Belgium.
37) Saudi Arabia
Will be disappointed not to have made a better stab at qualification after drawing with Uruguay. Defeat to Spain was one thing, failing to land a glove on Cape Verde another.
36) Uruguay
Already through to the 2030 World Cup as well as a ‘commemorative match host’ and came safely through the CONMEBOL qualification process with a game to spare as they looked to put a disappointing 2022 World Cup behind them.
But were truly rotten. When you face Spain last, you cannot be drawing to Saudi Arabia and then Cape Verde. That’s a nonsense. The biggest team to miss out on the knockouts, which was not a badge anyone wanted to win in a group stage that made it almost impossible for a big team to miss out. Almost.
35) Scotland
Oh no. Oh no, no, no. It was always so possible and has now come to pass. Not just another group-stage exit, but the funniest possible group-stage exit. Beat Haiti in the opener, lose to Morocco and Brazil, still go out in the group stage.
The most Scotlandy way to do the most Scotlandy thing. Right down to the identity of their opponents in the final game. Astonishingly, 22 per cent of all Scotland’s games at the World Cup have been played against Brazil. It is the most World Cup group-stage game of all.
34) South Korea
Bagged a co-host in the draw but fluffed their lines against Mexico and again against South Africa to leave themselves relying on favours from others that never came. One of the four third-placed teams to miss out, and all four will be full of regret at the meekness of their efforts.
33) Iran
You have to feel for them. Went through indignities and jumped over hurdles and through hoops that simply weren’t required of other sides and then went out in the most brutal fashion with a three-draws outcome that pre-tournament would have looked nailed on to get a best third-placed spot.
32) South Africa
Could they have had more of a go against Canada in the last 32? Maybe. But ultimately, the truth may simply be that Bafana Bafana were not very good. That would be a fair conclusion based on their efforts in three of their four games.
They were clear second-best in a low-quality, low-key start to the knockout stage. Just as they had been in the start to the group stage, all the way back in the distant mists of time when they played Mexico if you can remember that. They were also pretty lucky to emerge with a point against Czech Republic.
Which all leaves us baffled how, in the decisive final group game, they deservedly beat South Korea.
Based on (almost) all we saw of South Africa, reaching the knockouts represents overachievement, and rueing an undeniable missed opportunity to go a stage further can be kept to a minimum.
31) Ecuador
Had to beat Germany in their final group game to stand any chance of progressing and did so impressively. Ecuador restored their dark-horse credentials and looked dangerous opponents for Mexico at the Azteca in the last 32. They were anything but, and bow out as one of the biggest disappointments of the tournament.
30) Algeria
There was a delicious irony in ending the group stage by playing out a disgrace of a draw against Austria that would take both through after the injustice of 1982, especially as a draw meant third place for Algeria which was so, so much better than finishing second in the group.
But they couldn’t capitalise on landing in the Switzerland/Colombia/Ghana corner of the knockout bracket, going out rather tamely to the Swiss in Vancouver.
29) Austria
Second place behind Argentina in Group J was always the realistic target for Austria, but it always had potential to shove them into a miserable section of the draw. Sure enough, along came Spain to bring a swift and decisive end to Austria’s first World Cup since France 98.
At least their demise was swift and relatively painless in the last 32, unlike the close-but-no-cigar agonies suffered by so many.
28) Bosnia
Didn’t do enough with the chance offered to them by a last-32 clash with the (main) hosts, even when said hosts were harshly reduced to 10 men.
There is very nearly a very good team in there but ultimately and frustratingly… not.
27) Ghana
Got out of a tough group and Colombia felt very ‘could be worse’ as group winners in the last 32 go, but Ghana just never found an attacking gear to go with their impressively resolute and supremely well organised defensive work. Disappointing, given the players available.
26) Japan
Ultimately… it’s disappointing again. They’re such a good side – as England learned to their cost at Wembley – but they must now be considered serial underperformers at the World Cup. They’re just too good to still be waiting for any kind of win in a World Cup knockout game.
They had a tough assignment here, in fairness. The group-stage draw was not kind and they didn’t make life easy for Netherlands in Group F, and battered a deeply disappointing Tunisia. Second place in that group was a fine effort, but the reward was a game against Brazil where the Samurai Blue faded badly in the second half after a very good first half.
25) Sweden
No shame in being utterly swept aside by France in the first knockout round.
No need, really, for Sweden to feel too gloomy. They were enormously fortunate to be here in the first place, their Nations League efforts getting them into the repechage after a dismal, winless campaign in the initial qualification round.
And the simple fact is there was in the end no good route out of a horribly difficult Group F, from which there were swiftly no survivors with Netherlands and Japan having also gone down in teak-tough last-32 ties at the hands of Morocco and Brazil. A quick glance around the last-32 outcomes other winners, runners-up and even third-place sides ended up with tells you this group really might have just been cursed from the start.
24) Croatia
Needed all their class and tournament know-how – they’re finalists and semi-finalists from the last two World Cups, after all – just to stay with England in the opening game. By the end of it, they looked awful old and awful tired. But not quite actually awful.
Won their remaining games against Panama and Ghana to secure second spot in the group but didn’t look convincing going about it before continuing the theme of this inaugural World Cup round of 32. That theme is Late Heartbreak.
Croatia have done extraordinary things at the last two World Cups, but this was the very definition of a tournament too far for a crop of absolute legends.
23) Ivory Coast
A heartbreaking late defeat against the Inevitability of Erling Haaland meant Ivory Coast follow their group winners Germany into a last-32 departure.
22) Germany
Something strange has happened to Germany in recent tournament cycles. The old rule was that no matter how unconvincing they might look between majors, you could famously Never Rule Out The Germans when the serious business of tournament ball began.
The new rule is that no matter how good they look between majors, you simply cannot trust a really exciting squad of players to deliver when the big tournaments come around.
After group-stage exits at the last two World Cups, this new generation flattered to deceive by winning their first two games – including a 7-1 paddling of debutants Curacao.
But they then went unnecessarily strong in the final group game against Ecuador and still lost before having no answer to a heroic defensive display from Paraguay in the last 32.
Now can’t even be trusted in a shoot-out after muffing three of their six in Boston to tumble out of the tournament in meekly disappointing fashion.
Still haven’t won a World Cup knockout game since lifting the trophy in 2014. Something that is, ludicrously also true of Italy and 2006, and, until it was spectacularly destroyed at this tournament, Spain and 2010.
21) DR Congo
Magnificent against England in Atlanta, and full value for the lead they carried from the seventh minute until the 75th against a team that was only saved from itself in the end by Harry Kane. In time, the pain will give way to pride for a team on the up and one that it took the very, very best from one of the world’s very, very best to stop.
20) Senegal
No strangers to controversy after the AFCON final, but this World Cup exit is going to take a lot of getting over. Senegal had battered Belgium for 85 minutes, eased into a 2-0 lead and looked as comfortable as any team possibly could.
Suddenly it was somehow 2-2 with worse to come when Belgium were (rightly) awarded a penalty late in added time of extra time to break Senegal’s hearts.
The pain of this last-32 exit will be so much worse for knowing just what an opportunity was there when they seemed to have the match completely sewn up and could already look forward to a last-16 clash with USA or Bosnia that was full of opportunity for a supremely talented side.
19) Australia
Reached the last 16 in Qatar, but haven’t been beyond the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup since winning it in 2015 in Ange Postecoglou’s second year in charge. It’s what he does, mate.
But we did not expect them to open with a win over Turkey. The Socceroos undid a lot of their good work there in the next game against USA, much of which we can pin on Tony Popovic. The game against Paraguay became a play-off for second spot, but the fact it ended in a goalless draw that suited both teams down to the ground was no shock.
Egypt looked winnable prior to penalties, then Popovic tried to be clever, removing his in-form goalkeeper for a smaller one who saved not one of the spot-kicks, while diving comically early for every single one of them. So early that he couldn’t even get close to a scuffed Salah panenka ffs.
18) Netherlands
Won a really difficult group in impressive fashion but still found themselves with a really difficult last-32 clash against a fine Morocco team.
Were minutes away from winning that in normal time, and leaving just Canada between them and the last eight, only to concede an injury-time equaliser and eventually lose on penalties.
A brutally tough exit for Netherlands, and the fact only Cape Verde’s heroism stopped them winding up 17th and the very best of the first-knockout-round departures is probably not much consolation.
17) Cape Verde
What a story. Were already one of the truly incredible stories of this qualification process, confirming their place at a World Cup for the very first time after winning their group at the expense of Cameroon.
A draw against Spain was a bona fide miracle while backing that up with further draws against Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
Then pushing Argentina the way they did was the stuff of World Cup legend. Cape Verde ultimately walk away from their first World Cup with the knowledge that neither of the eventual finalists were able to beat them over 90 minutes. Not bad.
16) USA
The third and final and least lamented of the co-hosts to bow out at the last-16 stage. It could have all been so different for a team that really did light up the early weeks of the tournament with some of the very best football the group stage had to offer.
The concern – if that’s the right word – at the time was always that USA’s group-stage opposition was astonishingly weak, and the ease with which the first proper tournament-hardened team dispatched them in the last 16 was telling.
Belgium are nowhere near what they once were, but still far, far too good for a USA side that froze in the harsh glare of the spotlight after a week they could have done without.
The absurd suspension of Folarin Balogun’s suspension and FIFA’s flailing, weasel-worded attempts to make it all go away will now, sadly, be all this USA team’s World Cup adventure will be remembered for. That and how startlingly little difference all that nonsense actually made in the Belgium game.
That’s a real shame, because until the Balogun Farrago they were well on track to become a USA team people actually quite liked, which would have been an extraordinary achievement.
15) Paraguay
Came a long way from that 4-1 thrashing against the USA to start their tournament. Got the job done in the rest of the group stage before holding Germany at bay across 120 minutes in the last 32 before eventually winning an astonishing penalty shoot-out with their third match dart.
Losing to France was no surprise but their performance in doing so was absolutely exceptional, if you’re into that sort of thing.
14) Colombia
Has to go down as a huge missed opportunity to reach the last eight after spending 120 minutes failing to hit a Swiss barn door in the last 16. Switzerland were good against Argentina, but we’d have loved to see a CONMEBOL clash there and have a sneaky feeling the whole knockout phase might have ended up looking rather different.
13) Portugal
What a waste. Just never got going in the tournament despite a squad full of talent that was all left wasted in service of the dwindling talents of a superstar. Cristiano Ronaldo attempted 17 shots in this tournament without creating a single chance for a team-mate.
His last chance is gone, but it’s the waste of another chance for a host of other top players that rankles.
12) Canada
The adventure ended at the hands of Morocco in the last 16, but the key part of that sentence is ‘last 16’. Canada did everything and more they could have hoped as World Cup co-hosts for the first time.
Their first World Cup win was followed by their first World Cup knockout win. And, indeed, the first win for anyone ever in a last 32 match at the World Cup. Their place in pub-quiz history is secure.
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11) Mexico
It’s another last-16 exit for Mexico, their eighth in the last nine World Cups. Sure, they got themselves an extra game this time, and the last 32 gave them a chance to at last win another knockout game after 40 years, but hard to escape the sense that despite the formidable home advantage bestowed by the Azteca, they came up short – in an admittedly outrageous game of football – against the first truly decent side they faced.
It has been the way for Mexico at the World Cup for far, far too long. This was without doubt a chance missed.
10) Brazil
Another early exit for Brazil, the five-time winners having now managed just a single semi-final in six attempts since their last win in 2002, and now out as early as the last 16 for the first time since Italia 90.
The warning signs had been there in their only previous games against decent opposition at this World Cup, too. They were lucky to get a point against Morocco in the group stage, and far from convincing in coming from behind to beat Japan in the last 32.
Allowed Norway to dictate the tempo of their last-16 clash, and paid the price as they got thoroughly Erling Haalanded in the closing stages.
It all means they go out with something of a whimper and no nearer a solution to what is by their standards a miserable and long-standing problem at this level.
9) Egypt
Matched their best ever World Cup finish by reaching the last 16, but that tells its own story about just how badly Egypt have underperformed on the global stage over the years. They should be better than that.
Can’t be said to have underperformed here after coming so, so close to knocking out the defending champions, going 2-0 up before an astonishing comeback in the final 15 minutes.
It does feel like a night that will haunt Egyptian football for a long, long time to come. They were so, so close and so, so comfortable right up until they weren’t.
8) Norway
Norwegians will be having nightmares about that two-v-one break where Alexander Sorloth didn’t even try to play in literal Erling Haaland. It would have put them 2-0 up against a ragged and rattled England and surely seen them over the line in their first ever major quarter-final.
England levelled minutes later and scrambled through in extra-time. Norway have achieved so, so much in this tournament, but that really did feel like a missed opportunity for even more. England were there for the taking, and Norway ultimately could not get the job done. Will row home rightly and justifiably proud of what they’ve achieved but it really could have been more.
7) Switzerland
Historically, something close to the Mexico of Europe with five last-16 exits in the last eight tournaments before scraping past Colombia on penalties to go one better this time.
All things seemed possible when they deservedly drew level against Argentina in the quarter-final, but alas one of those things was ‘Breel Embolo doing the worst and stupidest dive of all time’ to see them reduced to 10 men and, eventually, overpowered in extra-time.
6) Morocco
Can’t be too harsh on a team that picked up seven points in a group containing Brazil, beat a much-fancied Netherlands side in the last 32 and dealt with Canada unfussily in the last 16, before losing to what were at the time clear tournament favourites France in the quarter-final.
But we can be a bit harsh, because that was a really naff effort in the last eight from a team that reached the semi-final four years ago. They offered almost nothing, seemingly hellbent on sticking to a plan to somehow hold on for 120 minutes and get a 0-0 draw and a penalty shoot-out. We’re not convinced that was the right plan from the outset, but sticking to it even at 2-0 did seem an act of particularly silly stubbornness.
5) Belgium
Football’s top boffins, number crunchers and scienticians will devote their lives to trying to work out precisely how an entirely moribund, lost and defeated Belgium side came back from 2-0 down in the closing minutes against Senegal to force extra-time, and then win the game 3-2 with a late, late penalty in the extra, well, about 40 minutes.
Followed that with an inspired performance against the USA that was celebrated by absolutely everyone else on earth. One of the very greatest things about this tournament when we all come to look back on it will be that both Trump and FIFA did show their hand with how far they would sink and how much collective dignity they were prepared to shred, but that it all ended up having the exact opposite to its intended effect, with Belgium provoked by the injustice into their best performance in years and a bright and vibrant – and popular – USA side dulled and shrunk by the stink that gathered over them.
Late (and ludicrous) nature of Spain’s winner in the quarter-final is a p*sser but, in truth, this cannot be seen as a ‘what if?’ for the Belgians.
There have been missed opportunities for Belgium in the recent past, but this tournament isn’t one of them. The last eight feels very much like the outside of what could reasonably have been expected from this particular crop, and let’s face it they were astonishingly lucky to remain beyond the first knockout round.
4) France
Clearly the best team in the tournament until, dramatically and devastatingly, they weren’t.
Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise and the rest all failed to turn up in the semi-final, as Didier Deschamps’ reign reached its meaningful end with a thoroughly convincing 2-0 defeat at the hands of an inspired Spain.
But it wasn’t just the vaunted attackers who went missing. The midfield was a void, and the defence lost much of the security it had shown all tournament long once William Saliba was forced off in the first half.
France had cruised through the tournament in imperious fashion, but were alarmingly second best all over the pitch in Texas as Spain condemned them to the third/fourth play-off, which they approached with disdain until it threatened to become truly embarrassing and then somehow almost salvaged.
3) England
Officially England’s second best men’s World Cup ever, and their finest on foreign soil after that silly third-place play-off.
We’ve still not entirely worked out quite how England got the final of Euro 2024 on the back of perhaps one convincing half of football across the entire tournament, against Netherlands in the semi-final.
But we’re going to have to park that for a bit now, because here England got to the the semi-final of a World Cup having played well in two halves of football. The second against Croatia was thrilling, even as it set an entirely misleading tone for how England would play in this tournament. And the other one was when 10 men defending the edge of their box against everything Mexico and their star man Al Titude could throw at them for 35 agonising minutes.
England were awful against DR Congo in the last 32, and awful again against Norway in the quarter-final. Even after reaching the semi-final, Thomas Tuchel was furious. And not even on this occasion with Djed Spence, who was magnificent after coming off the bench to help drag England over the line when it looked increasingly unlikely.
The semi-final proved to be a ‘greatest’ hits of a performance. The best of this England for 55 minutes up to the moment they went ahead, and then a cowardly surrender of that position to put any big-game capitulation from the Southgate years to shame.
Surprised nobody by shipping four goals to a rampant France attack in the unloved third-place game. Surprised everyone by also scoring six of their own having shrewdly rested Bukayo Saka throughout the whole of the irrelevant semi-final to save him for the big one.
2) Argentina
Enormously fortunate to make the final after a series of dramatic escapes from unlikely positions.
Cape Verde gave them an almighty fright in the last 32, and Egypt an even more ridiculous one in the last 16. And then Switzerland in the quarter-final.
They landed in comfortably the easiest quarter of the draw, and made extraordinarily hard work of progressing. Yet progress they did, each and every time. It is what they do. And what England, historically, don’t.
Cue the exact game you would expect from Messi and co proving too much as Thomas Tuchel set England up for the exact performance you would expect from Southgate and co.
But they disgraced themselves in the final. Even if FIFA were minded to rig the tournament for them, it’s hard to know how they’d go about helping a side whose first shot of any kind – on target or otherwise – didn’t arrive until the 117th minute.
Enzo Fernandez let his country down and we can’t pretend not to be absolutely delighted about that. The perfect finish then arrived when a team that had spent three days having a fit of the vapours because Jude Bellingham was mildly annoyed at the way they celebrated their semi-final win duly marked Spain’s win by trying to start an on-pitch riot.
Even Messi didn’t escape with dignity intact after the mortifying attempt to tell teacher that Marc Cucurella had touched his mouth while speaking. Pitiful stuff in every way. Managing to be the worst thing about a final that featured Justin Bieber Unplugged was going to take something special, but Argentina somehow pulled it off.
1) Spain
Put the shock draw with Cape Verde firmly in the rearview mirror by winning their other two games to secure top spot in Group H with plenty to spare before simply swatting Austria aside in the last 32.
Weren’t at their best in a weirdly low-key last-16 clash with Portugal but more late drama saw Mikel Merino win them the game in added time before the poacher’s poacher did it again versus Belgium in the quarters.
Were thus currently traversing – with some alacrity – the most Euros-coded knockout path conceivable as they then thoroughly outclassed a deeply disappointing France in the last four.
It had been an odd tournament for Spain, who have been kind of clinically impressive without ever really setting the blood pumping until the semi-final when they were absolutely stunning. They are the closest looking thing to a top club side at the tournament in terms of their use of the collective rather than overt reliance on the most absurdly talented members of their group.
Were utterly dominant in the final, even if it did take them until well into extra-time and after Argentina had been reduced to 10 to make that count on the scoreboard.