With the round of 16 completed, there will be a football break in Qatar until next Friday 9. Portugal and Switzerland closed the round of 16 of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. That means that there will be a short football break in the World Cup, specifically, until next Friday 9 December, when the quarter-finals will kick off and it will be a bank holiday in our country.

That means that there will be no World Cup matches on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 December. We will have to wait until Friday 9 December to enjoy the first quarter-final: Croatia-Brazil, which will be played at 12:00. Later in the day, at 16:00, the Netherlands and Argentina will do the same.

Let's take a brief look at what has happened so far.

The run-up to the World Cup and the extra-football aspects of the World Cup.

So far, the tournament has been consumed by more off-field controversies than those caused by the erratic video review system, VAR, which has infuriated fans.

Disputes over FIFA thwarting an attempt by European teams to support LGBTQ+ diversity, women's rights, the treatment of migrant workers who built air-conditioned stadiums in the desert and the availability of alcohol in the Muslim nation erupted from before the opening match. 

The dramas revived suspicions that a sport that presents itself as open to all ignores human rights and political repression in Qatar on account of its host's oil wealth, in a nation with little cultural or historical connection to the beautiful game.

The numbers, goals, surprises and unprecedented records: this is how the group stage of the Qatar 2022 World Cup ended

The group phase, the first stage of the Qatar 2022 World Cup after 48 matches that defined the 16 teams that qualified for the round of 16 and the same number that packed their bags to return to their respective countries, produced some surprises. The matches produced unprecedented numbers and records in a World Cup marked by surprise results and the premature elimination of two title contenders like Germany and Belgium.

The Germans could not get through Group E because they lost 2-1 to Japan in the opener, drew 1-1 with Spain and beat Costa Rica 4-2. With a worse goal difference than the Spaniards, they went out at the same stage as Russia 2018, where they arrived as champions of Brazil 2014, and equalled the negative record of Italy, which after being crowned at Germany 2006 did not get past the opening stage in two consecutive World Cups - South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014.

The 16 teams still in the running for the title are the Netherlands, Senegal, England, USA, Argentina, Poland, France, Australia, Japan, Spain, Morocco, Croatia, Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal and South Korea. Eight belong to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), two to the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), three to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), one to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and two to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which for the second time in history has this number of representatives in the last 16. The other was at Brazil 2014 with Nigeria and Algeria.

One particularity of the first stage was that since the World Cup has had 32 teams, since France 1998, it is the first time that none of them won all three games in the group and achieved a perfect score - nine out of nine. The top scorers, with seven points, are the Netherlands, England and Morocco, who are unbeaten along with the United States and Croatia. The rest lost at least one match. In addition, eliminated Qatar became the worst hosts in history and, along with Canada, are the only ones without a point.

With the introduction of VAR, the number of players sent off has dropped considerably and in the first half there were only two red cards. The first was to Welsh goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey in the match against Iran and the other to Cameroon's Vincent Aboubakar.

The refereeing was historic: Germany's 4-2 win over Costa Rica was officiated by French referee Stéphanie Frappart, the first woman to officiate in a men's international match. Her assistants were Brazil's Neuza Back and Mexico's Karen Diaz Medina. Coordinating the VAR booth was Kathryn Nesbitt from the USA. The French judge is not the only one at the World Cup, as Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan are also present.

Quarter-finals with Morocco as a surprise package.

The Qatar 2022 World Cup enters its culminating stage in which less than half of the teams are playing for a ticket to the semi-finals of the most important football tournament in the world.

Amid surprises, disappointments and business as usual, eight teams are looking to make the podium at the World Cup being played in the Arab country.

Defending World Cup champions France will be looking to defend their title under the talent of Kylian Mbappé when they face a talented England side hoping to spring a surprise and eliminate the favourites.

Argentina have a tough task against a revamped Netherlands, while Brazil, with Neymar back from injury, go for Croatia, who were runners-up at Russia 2018.

Surprise package Morocco advanced by knocking out favourites Spain in a game that went to extra time and penalties to decide rivals Portugal, who edged out Switzerland.

The quarter-finals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup were thus set.

Source: FIFA.