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Eight games remain at the 2022 World Cup, maybe as few as four-and-a-half hours (plus an awful lot of added time) standing between one of these teams and the greatest triumph in their sport.
As is so often the case at World Cups, a thrilling group stage had the world wondering whether this might be the tournament of upsets, dark horses going all the way to glory. Instead, we have reached a quarterfinals where these eight teams might have a reasonable case to be ranked among the dozen or so best international sides on the planet. Morocco might have provided the round of 16’s upset but theirs is still a squad with representatives from Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Sevilla.
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Still, this first slice of true knockout football has taught us some things we might not have known about the quarterfinalists before. Portugal can actually knock it around quite neatly under Fernando Santos. Croatia might go deep in tournaments but it does not come by winning games in the 90. Kylian Mbappe quite likes this competition. OK, we might have known that one for about four years.
There are eight still standing, here is how we rank them:
Listen below and follow In Soccer We Trust: A CBS Sports Soccer Podcast where your three favorite former USMNT players cover everything you could possibly want to know about the United States men’s national team during the World Cup in Qatar.
