Superstars light up the pitch as World Cup enters final phase of the group stage

☝️ Here are the teams who have qualified for the knockout stage since our last newsletter: Argentina, France, Norway, and Colombia. Kudos.

😱 Shockingly not on that list? Tourney favorite England, who would’ve clinched with a win yesterday but couldn’t dismantle Ghana’s fierce defensive low block despite holding possession for 79% of the 0–0 draw.

⭐ Now let’s get to the goals with many superstars shining bright on the WC stage. Yesterday, 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo silenced his doubters, netting two goals in Portugal’s 5–0 thrashing of Uzbekistan and becoming the first player to score in six WCs.

🐐 And then there’s Lionel Messi. The GOAT scored his 17th and 18th career WC goals on Monday, making him the top all-time WC goal scorer, man or woman. Don’t mind us — just manifesting Marta’s resurgence at the Women’s WC one year from now.

👀 France’s Kylian Mbappé is right on Messi’s tail, with his career WC goal tally at 16 after scoring twice in Monday’s 3–0 win over Iraq.

✨ With that, let’s check on the Golden Boot race: Messi leads (5), followed by Mbappé plus Norway’s Erling Haaland (4), and CanMNT’s Jonathan David and Germany’s Deniz Undav (3). Still plenty of fútbol to go.

👏 Three groups are in action every day from now until Saturday, with all four teams in each group playing simultaneously to prevent game tampering. As a reminder, the top two teams in each group advance to the Round of 32, in addition to the top eight third-place finishers.

📺 Keep an eye on the Group C matches today at 6 p.m. ET. Brazil and Morocco currently top the group with four points apiece, but Scotland (three points) trails narrowly and could shake things up if they can beat Brazil.