Ranking each team’s World Cup showing relative to their official FIFA ranking
Going from how badly they underachieved to how well they overachieved, we rank how each team performed at the World Cup based on their official FIFA world ranking.
For example (spoiler alert), Brazil are ranked first in the world but lost in the quarter-final, so they are going to be ranked very low here. South Korea, on the other hand, are one of the lower-ranked teams and made it out of their group, so they will be high. Hope this helps.
32) Belgium (2)
Yes, they are pretty old. But they are still supposed to be the second best international football team on the planet. They didn’t show up and their golden era is over with a grand total of zero major trophies, or even finals, to show for it. What a shame.
31) Brazil (1)
The best team in the bloody world, apparently. Well, they should have won the f***ing thing then. At least they scored enough goals to show off their lovely dance moves.
30) Denmark (10)
Zero wins, one draw, two losses in a pretty favourable group. Denmark finished bottom behind Tunisia, France and Australia after an amazing qualifying campaign and Euro 2020 semi-final appearance last year. Dark horses my arse.
29) Germany (11)
Another team to flop out of their group on what was a bloody mental Thursday evening in which both them and Spain were going out at the expense of Costa Rica and Japan for at least a couple of minutes.
Germany managed to win a game and are lower in the rankings than Denmark, so are a spot higher here.
28) Spain (7)
From battering Costa Rica 7-0 in one of the most dominating wins in World Cup history to losing to Morocco in the round of 16; Luis Enrique lost his job and will be wondering what the hell happened.
27) England (5)
There were high hopes for this group of players, but their team is not better than France’s and that is why they lost that quarter-final. You’ve got to feel for English Arsenal fans who have watched Harry Kane score penalty after penalty against their team, only to watch him sky one at the World Cup for their country.
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26) Mexico (13)
They’d lost in the last 16 in seven consecutive World Cups prior to the 2022 tournament. Maybe this is part of the long-term plan to break that duck by putting all of their eggs in the 2026 basket as Mexico look to use their partial hosting rights to finally make it to the last eight.
25) Uruguay (14)
We got the crunch match of all crunch matches when Uruguay faced Ghana. Uruguay won but crashed out thanks to South Korea’s win against Portugal. Luis Suarez’s tears were beautiful.
24) Wales (19)
Knocked out before the last 16 without a win.
23) Serbia (21)
A few fancied Serbia to do well in Qatar, but their chaotic frontline of Dusan Vlahovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic failed to earn them a single win as they finished bottom of Group G.
22) Canada (41)
They finished bottom of their group with zero points. Need I say any more?
21) Switzerland (15)
A round-of-16 exit sits well with me for the team ranked 15th, according to FIFA. I was hoping they’d be a lot higher here after backing them to be the dark horses of the tournament.
20) United States (16)
The team 16th in the world were literally the first team to be knocked out in the last 16. See you in four years, chaps.
19) Portugal (9)
A quarter-final exit for a team ninth in the world is pretty fair, I’d say. Even if their actual squad does not reflect their ranking.
18) Qatar (50)
Qatar ended up being the worst hosts (on the pitch) in World Cup history. As the third-lowest ranked team in the tournament, with no household names in their squad, it was not a surprise to see them lose all three matches on home soil. Middle of the road is perfect.
17) Iran (20)
Knocked out before the last 16 but at least won a game.
16) Netherlands (8)
They lost a bloody mental quarter-final against Argentina. 17 yellow cards. S**thousery. Scraps. A last-minute equaliser. That was football heritage.
Being a penalty shootout away from a semi-final probably did exceed expectations for Louis van Gaal’s army.
15) Ecuador (44)
They beat the hosts, drew with the Netherlands and looked pretty good doing so. Only to lose to African champions Senegal to lose out on the prospect of upsetting England in the next round.
14) Senegal (18)
The African champions went into the tournament ranked 18th in the world and expectations quickly deteriorated after it was announced Sadio Mane would miss the tournament. He might have made England pay in that tricky opening 30 minutes in the last 16, but Senegal lost 3-0 and went out.
13) Costa Rica (31)
Beat the winners of their group 1-0 but lost 7-0 to the team to finish second.
12) Tunisia (30)
Beat the world champions but failed to progress. Poor sods.
11) Cameroon (43)
They beat tournament favourites Brazil. But lost to Switzerland and drew with Serbia to get put out in the group stage.
Cameroon gave us a pretty great moment when Vincent Aboubakar scored a last-gasp winner against Selecao, took his top off to celebrate, dapped up the referee, received a second yellow card and was sent off. Then was named man of the match. Box office. Cheers, Vincent.
10) Saudi Arabia (51)
Their final two results of the tournament were more like it for the second-worst team in the entire tournament. That shock 2-1 win over Argentina on matchday one feels like it was months ago. What a game that was.
9) France (4)
The fourth-best team finishing as runners-up is not shocking whatsoever. Their final performance made it look like their whole team were still ill, until the 80th minute when Kylian Mbappe scored, and then scored again less than two minutes later.
The final looked like it was going to fizzle out into a boring win for Argentina, but it ended up potentially being the best World Cup final of all time once France got their s**t together.
8) Argentina (3)
The winners. After losing their opening fixture against Saudi Arabia they came back to beat everyone. Lionel Messi became the first player to score in the group stage, last 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final of a men’s World Cup.
7) Poland (26)
Being ranked higher than Japan and making it out of their group when Ghana did not may make you wonder how Poland are lower. It’s because they were bloody awful. Only losing 2-0 to Argentina was a brilliant result for them. Wojciech Szczesny probably deserves the Golden Ball after those heroics.
6) Ghana (61)
The supposed worst team in the entire tournament definitely did not show their ranking, beating South Korea, scoring two against Portugal and losing to Uruguay. I really wish they beat the South Americans, but they were rubbish on the day after missing a penalty to go 1-0 up. Poetic.
5) Japan (24)
Japan would have been higher had they known how to take penalties. They were fun to watch, though.
4) South Korea (28)
Got pretty lucky to face an already-qualified Portugal on matchday three, earning themselves a last-16 berth, where they were spanked by Brazil.
3) Croatia (12)
After reaching the final four years ago, Croatia were a game away from doing so again, even though they came into the tournament ranked 12th in the world.
They knocked out tournament favourites Brazil but were brushed aside by eventual winners Argentina in the semis. Here’s hoping we see Luka Modric at a World Cup finals again.
2) Australia (38)
The Socceroos made the knockout stage of the World Cup for the second time and ran eventual winners Argentina pretty close, losing out to Lionel Messi and co. 2-1 in the last 16 to end their stellar showing in Qatar.
1) Morocco (22)
They finished fourth. Fourth! What a showing they put in. Prior to the semi-final defeat to France they had only conceded one goal all tournament and that was an own goal.
They were the real dark horses of the tournament, beating Belgium, Spain and Portugal before losing to France and then Croatia in the third-place play-off.
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