The most improved teams at the World Cup

No matter how many pundits tip the usual big names to walk their way through a World Cup, there’ll always be the handful of minnows who somehow manage to sneak through the group stages, or even make it to the dizzying heights of a quarter or semi-final. After a couple of instances of domination by the usual suspects, World Cup 2018 returned to the realms of ‘anything’s possible’, with plenty of upsets and runs that saw both pre-tournament favourites exit early.

Defenders Germany lived up to the curse of previous winners by exiting horrendously in the group stage, and Spain were dumped out unceremoniously by hosts and ‘worst team at the tournament’ on penalties, and Brazil said their goodbyes at the hands of perennial dark horses Belgium. Even 2014 finalists Argentina were gone by the quarters, bowing out to eventual winners France.

With France, Croatia, Belgium and England taking the top four spots respectively, World Cup 2018 wasn’t about the world-class teams playing badly (apart from Germany), but more about up-and-coming squads really starting to find their feet. As Germany did in 2014, a youthful French squad finally found cohesion, even after a slow start that may have actually been tactical to save energy for latter stage games. Youngsters like Kylian Mbappe and Benjamin Pavard lit up the tournament, and established names like Pogba, Lloris, Varane and Kante showed exactly why they are worth so much. Following a 2014 tournament that showed a severe gap between youth and the old guard, the young French team has certainly upped the ante and proven that they can be a dominant force right up to Euro 2024 at the least.

The other team in the final have also created major waves. Croatia’s last 3 World Cups before 2018 resulted in group stage exits, so it was pretty surprising to see Luka Modric and co giving France a run for their money in Moscow. Croatia have World Cup pedigree, but players always seemed disjointed and the managerial structure just wasn’t there. Their best performance since 1998, 2018’s tournament just went to show the level of depth and talent available to head coach Zlatko Dalić, with names like Kovacic, Perisic, Mandzukic, Lovren, Vida, Kalinic and of course player of the tournament Modric all firm fixtures in Europe’s elite teams. On a different day, Croatia might have won the tournament.

For Belgium and England, third and fourth spots certainly won’t have been a disappointment. Belgium never seem to get it together at major tournaments and England’s last group win prior to 2018 was in 2006, with zero wins in 2014. Both teams went on runs that were very impressive, with England in particular banishing a few demons as they won on penalties against Colombia, then beat Sweden comfortably to book a place in the semi-final. Gareth Southgate’s tactics and selection choices had many worried, but his experience gained as part of England’s under 21 setup certainly shone through as his team played with way more confidence than in previous tournaments.

Even hosts Russia showed that anything can happen in football. Given the official FIFA designation of lowest-ranked team in the tournament, a 5-1 demolition of Saudi Arabia follow by a straightforward win against Egypt were enough to get them out of the groups, and a solid performance followed by decent penalties was enough to dump out previous winners Spain. They came pretty close to dumping eventual finalists Croatia out too, with the match going to penalties again. Despite a severe lack of big names and a pretty poor run into the tournament, Russia certainly walked away from their own tournament with their honour intact. The performances came as a shock, Russia certainly weren’t expected to do well, but this is part of the reason why the World Cup was so memorable.

After a few changes at the top of football’s elite this year, it will certainly be interesting if the likes of England, Croatia and Belgium can continue to perform as they did this year. With many squads in transition and players gaining more experience, the big question is whether the likes of Germany and Spain can regain their crowns, and if absentees Italy and the Netherlands can get back to fighting form. Either way, Euro 2020 will certainly be clash of the titans.