2026 World Cup: No Brazil or Germany in quarters for first time
Either of top-two World Cup winners with 9 titles between them have always made last 8
The old order is crumbling and how. For the first time in any edition of the World Cup, neither powerhouses Brazil nor Germany are among the quarter-finalists.
Brazil have won the Fifa World Cup a record five times – 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 – while Germany are the second-most successful side with four wins – in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014.
Ten of 17 editions of the World Cup, including quarter-finals, have featured both of those giants of world football at the same time. Germany missed out on the quarter-final stage in 1938, 1950, 2018 and 2022, and Brazil in 1934, 1966 and 1990, but never before have both heavyweights left proceedings before this stage of the tournament.
There were no quarter-finals in the 1930, 1950, 1974, 1978 and 1982 editions.
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While four of the eight quarter-finalists have already lifted the Trophy – Argentina with three (in 1978, 1986, 2022), France with two (1998, 2018), England with one (1966) and Spain also one (2010) – the other four are still in pursuit of a first world crown. Belgium and Morocco have never made it past the semi-finals. Switzerland last played in the quarter-finals at their home World Cup in 1954. Norway had never previously gone beyond the Round of 16. This 2026 edition could, therefore, see a new nation claim the prize for the first time since Spain's coronation in 2010.
Interestingly, England have the worst World Cup quarter-finals to titles conversion ratio among the last 8 teams in previous tournaments. The Three Lions have featured at this stage of the competition on the most occasions (10) and have won only won three of those matches. They are followed by France (nine), Argentina (eight), Spain (five) and Belgium and Switzerland (three). For Morocco, this will be their second quarter-final.
Aside from one team from Africa, the quarter-final bracket is made up of one South American nation and six European sides, which is the same as at Russia 2018 and one more than at Qatar 2022.
Six of the 12 group winners remained in contention ahead of the opening quarter-final match on Thursday night: Switzerland (Group B), Belgium (Group G), Spain (Group H), France (Group I), Argentina (Group J) and England (Group L). The only exceptions are Morocco and Norway, who finished second in Groups C and I, respectively. There are, therefore, none of the best third-placed teams at this stage of the tournament. Indeed, only one of those side made it through to the Round of 16 round – Paraguay, who fell 1-0 against France.
France and Argentina have each scored 14 goals in North America, which is one more than Belgium (13). They are followed by Norway (12), England (11), Morocco (10) and finally Spain and Switzerland (nine apiece).
