Group Stage Awards: The Best, the Worst, and the Unforgettable

As the group stage wraps up, we look back at some of the things we'll remember from an incredible few weeks of football.

Game of the Group Stage

Algeria 3–3 Austria

It's hard for me not to choose England–Croatia as my game of the groups, especially having been there in person. But given what was on the line in Algeria–Austria, that's my pick for favourite game of the group stage.

Going into the match, both teams would have been happy with a draw, since it would move both into the round of 32 at Iran's expense. Media outlets pointed to the Disgrace of Gijón as a reason Algeria might not play for a draw — though I'm not sure how many current Algerian players were too concerned with an event that happened decades before most of them were born.

In the 28th minute, veteran Marko Arnautović opened the scoring for Austria. A long ball from David Alaba found him in behind, and he calmly finished past the Algerian keeper. Algeria answered right before half-time. The ball bounced fortuitously off the corner flag into Riyad Mahrez's path, and he set up Rafik Belghali, who finished a slaloming run with a fine strike to level the score. All even, both teams still through.

The back-and-forth continued into the second half. Marcel Sabitzer finished a sharp Konrad Laimer cutback to retake the lead for Austria — and as it stood, that result would have knocked Algeria out. But Algeria answered again within five minutes, Mahrez finishing off a low cross from Houssem Aouar.

Around the 75th minute it looked like both sides might settle for the point that would send them through. Algeria held possession without much forward momentum, seemingly content to run down the clock. But that lull nearly cost Austria everything. In the third minute of stoppage time, Aouar found space and played in Mahrez, who made no mistake, finally putting Algeria ahead — and, for a moment, out of the tournament looked to be Austria's fate. Yet the game wasn't done. Moments later, substitute Sasa Kalajdzić headed home a Michael Gregoritsch cross to level it at 3–3 and send both sides through.

A wild ending to a game I wasn't particularly excited for at kickoff — but both teams delivered something genuinely unforgettable.

Surprise of the Tournament

Cape Verde

I could honestly go with the entire continent of Africa here. Nine of the ten African teams that qualified made it out of the group stage — compared to just six nations in the entire history of the tournament prior to this one. The expanded format certainly helped, but it's still a remarkable achievement.

Cape Verde is the standout for me. They were by far the biggest underdogs in a group featuring Uruguay and Spain as the heavy favourites. The Blue Sharks kept two shutouts and conceded just two goals across the entire group stage — one of those coming against tournament favourites Spain.

Vozinha, their 40-year-old goalkeeper, stole the show, but the team was solid defensively as a whole. Though I suspect the Cinderella run ends in the round of 32 against defending champions Argentina, Cape Verde gave us some genuinely memorable moments and underlined just how far African football has come.

Biggest Disappointment

South Korea

Two teams came to mind for this category — South Korea and Uruguay. Since Group H was already covered above with Cape Verde, I'll go with Korea here, though a real case could be made that Uruguay was the bigger letdown.

South Korea started the tournament well, beating Czechia 2–1 in an entertaining match. They played a free-flowing style, nearly doubling Czechia's passes, and Lee Kang-in looked like a genuine world-beater.

It went downhill from there. They lost 1–0 to Mexico in a close affair, with a mistake from their own goalkeeper ultimately costing them the result. That game could have gone either way.

Their final group game, though, was simply poor. They lost 1–0 to South Africa without creating much in the way of clear-cut chances. Son Heung-min started on the bench and came on at half-time, but it wasn't enough — despite having over 65% of the possession, Korea managed just a handful of shots on target. Towards the end, I was genuinely surprised by how few players they committed to the box. The urgency just wasn't there.

It will be interesting to see where Korea go from here. This looked like a winnable group and a squad capable of a deep run — instead, it's back to the drawing board.

Player of the Groups

Lionel Messi

No surprise here. The GOAT scored six goals across the group stage — a hat-trick against Algeria, a brace against Austria, and a stunning free kick off the bench against Jordan. That run took his career World Cup tally to 19, making him the outright all-time leading goalscorer in men's World Cup history, surpassing Miroslav Klose's longstanding record of 16. And he can keep adding to it. There isn't much left to say about this guy that hasn't already been said. He just keeps exceeding expectations.

Young Player of the Groups

Johan Manzambi

A bit off the board, particularly given he didn't start Switzerland's first two matches of the tournament. But the 20-year-old has been phenomenal in the minutes he's had — outside of the Qatar game, where it felt like all of Switzerland was sleepwalking. Manzambi, who plays his club football for Freiburg in Germany, scored twice against Bosnia in just 19 minutes on the pitch and had a hand in both goals against Canada.

Switzerland have become something of serial knockout-round participants, reaching the last 16 in each of the past three World Cups, and will be looking to finally push deeper this time. I think Manzambi has shown himself to be key to that ambition. Expect Europe's bigger clubs to start paying close attention very soon.