Groups D, E and F played their third group stage fixtures at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday.
The six matches saw a total of eight – maybe nine – teams clinch crucial points to make it to the elimination rounds of this expanded version of the World Cup, featuring 48 teams.
Here is an overview of how the matches went:
Ivory Coast v Curacao
Ivory Coast rejoiced as players dropped to their knees on the pitch for a team photo and they all pointed one finger toward the sky.
Players stripped off their jerseys and danced and partied in the locker room for the well-earned and overdue celebration.
Ivory Coast beat Ecuador 1-0 in its tournament opener — at the same Philadelphia stadium as Thursday’s game — and lost to Germany in its Group E second game.
Curaçao needed to win and instead failed to become the smallest nation to qualify for the knockout stages.
Pépé, who plays for the Spanish club Villarreal, wiped out all the suspense in this one early, scoring in just the seventh minute and the lead held the rest of the game in front of an enthusiastic crowd that made Les Éléphants feel at home. Ivory Coast held its training base in nearby Delaware and practiced at the Philadelphia suburban home of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union.
Ivory Coast will play June 30 against either France or Norway — whichever is the runner-up in Group I, a score which will be settled on Friday night.
Ecuador v Germany
A little flick of Gonzalo Plata’s big toe helped Ecuador make a great escape.
Plata poked the ball past Manuel Neuer in the 77th minute and lifted Ecuador to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Germany on Thursday and into the knockout round of the World Cup for the first time since 2006.
“Life is different now. We suffered a lot,” said Plata, a 25-year-old winger who scored his ninth international goal. “We suffered too much in the first two matches. We would have liked to secure qualification much earlier, but now we’re going forward more hungry, knowing we have to give it our all.”
Ecuador, which has lost only one of its last 22 games, finished third in Group E with four points and advanced past the group stage for the second time, headed to a possible matchup with Mexico on Tuesday in Mexico City.
A four-time champion already assured of advancement by winning its first two games, Germany will play its round of 32 game on Monday at Foxborough, Massachusetts, most likely against Paraguay, Australia or Sweden.
Germany went ahead on Leroy Sané’s second-minute goal. Aleksandar Pavlović chested the ball and ended up kicking Pedro Vite in the head following Nathaniel Brown’s throw-in, but American referee Tori Penso didn’t whistle a foul. Pavlović passed to Florian Wirtz, who centred to Sané just inside the penalty area to beat goalkeeper Hernán Galíndez.
Nilson Angulo equalized in the ninth minute with Ecuador’s first goal of the tournament following a 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast and a 0-0 draw with Curaçao.
Felix Nmecha lost the ball in midfield to Vite. The midfielder passed to Angulo, who dribbled toward goal and beat Neuer to the far post from just outside the area.
Germany’s winning streak was stopped at 11 games, one shy of the team record set in 1979-80.
“The difference was today that the opponent wanted to win more than us, and you could really feel it, especially in the second half,” Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich said.
Netherlands v Tunisia
The lightning that streaked over Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night only briefly slowed the Oranje Fanwalk, as Dutch supporters marched en masse to watch the Netherlands play Tunisia in the World Cup, the top spot in Group F hanging in the balance.
Nothing else seems to be slowing down the Dutch these days and certainly not a Tunisian team in chaos.
Brian Brobbey scored his third goal of the tournament, and the Netherlands got two more goals that deflected off Tunisian players and into their own net, sending the Dutch to a 3-1 victory and ultimately first place in their group.
The opening minutes of Thursday night’s match summed up the last couple of weeks for the Eagles of Carthage, too: Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries sent a ball across the front of the goal, Ellys Skhiri slapped at with his foot in an attempt to clear, and the Tunisian captain found the back of his own net instead.
Brobbey made it 2-0 in the seventh minute, after the Dutch had earned a free kick from about 23 metres. The 1.95m tall van Dijk expertly headed it across the box, and Brobbey was in perfect position to chip the ball past Tunisian goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen.
Tunisia finally scored in the 54th minute, when Hazem Mastouri redirected a corner kick into the net, only for the Dutch to match the goal a few minutes later, when van Hecke’s header off a corner glanced off Anis Slimane’s head and into his own net.
“We (scored) directly after,” Brobbey said, “so that was a good response.”
The Netherlands controlled the game from there, even as a first-half drizzle turned into a second-half downpour.
“These are the kind of games you want to play. These are the big games, why you want to play in the World Cup,” Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke said. “I think the team is prepared for a big game, and everyone knows it’s game on.”
Sweden v Japan
Daizen Maeda gave Japan the lead and Anthony Elanga took it away six minutes later, helping Sweden to a 1-1 draw on Thursday night that sent both teams to the knockout round of the World Cup.
Maeda settled a nifty pass from Ritsu Doan with his left foot in the penalty area and easily beat Jacob Widell Zetterstrom with his right foot.
Swedish forward Elanga’s impressive left-footed strike from just outside the right corner of the box in the 62nd minute was his second goal of this year’s tournament. Elanga has scored only three goals in 49 games for Newcastle, but zero in 32 Premier League matches.
It was Japan’s seventh goal of the tournament, the country’s most for an entire World Cup. That topped the six the Japanese scored while reaching the round of 16 in Russia eight years ago.
Japan is advancing out of the group stage for the third consecutive World Cup and fifth time in seven tries since first reaching the round of 16 as co-hosts in 2002.
The Japanese team finished second in Group F behind the Netherlands and will play Brazil in Houston on Monday. Sweden will have to wait to find out its opponent in the round of 32 next week.
Turkey v United States
The United States only wanted to get through its final World Cup group stage match on Thursday night without an injury or a red card, while Turkey was playing for a face-saving victory to end a dismal tournament.
Both teams got what they wanted most out of their meaningless meeting before co-hosts the US head on to the knockout stage — and coach Mauricio Pochettino was annoyed by any suggestion that the Americans’ last-gasp, 3-2 defeat said anything negative about the state of his team.
The result was meaningless to the Americans, who have already guaranteed qualification and will meet Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Round of 32 on Wednesday. Pochettino sent out nine new starters, including eight who were starting a World Cup match for the first time.
Auston Trusty scored in the third minute for the US, who beat Paraguay and Australia by a combined 6-1 to book their place in the knockouts.
Arda Güler and Baris Alper Yilmaz scored in the first half of a resilient performance by Turkey, which had already been eliminated after losing its first two matches despite largely dominating both statistically.
The US tied it early in the second half on a goal by Sebastian Berhalter, and the Americans got within a few seconds of an unbeaten run through the group stage.
Turkey improbably won in the eighth minute of stoppage time when Can Uzun got the ball in space on the back post and pushed it past sprawling goalkeeper Matt Turner to Ayhan, who slid to knock it home on the last kick of the match.
Australia v Paraguay
Australia and Paraguay played to a 0-0 draw on Thursday night in a result that clinched a spot in the knockout round of the World Cup for the Socceroos and will likely be enough for the Paraguayans to advance.
The expanded tournament to 48 teams that provides a spot in the knockout round for eight of the 12 best ranked third-place teams in the group stage led to the cautious approach for both teams in their final Group D match after they each entered with three points apiece thanks to wins over Turkey.
The winner of this game was assured second place behind the United States in the group with Australia also clinching that spot with a draw thanks to a better goal differential than Paraguay. But the draw that gave Paraguay four points in the group also was likely to be enough barring a string of bad results in the final two days of group play.
“We tried to win the game,” Australia coach Tony Popovic said. “In the end, a draw was enough for both nations. Congratulations to Paraguay as well. … I’m sure as we are feeling euphoria and joy as a nation, I’m sure Paraguay is as well.”
This marks the third time that Australia has advanced to the knockout round after losing in the round of 16 in 2006 and 2022. The Socceroos will play in the round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas, against the second-place finisher from Group G that will be determined Friday night.
Paraguay must wait to learn its fate, but is in good position to advance to the knockout round for the fifth time.
