The 2022 FIFA World Cup started off with 32 teams competing to reach the final on Sunday, December 18. Only two will get there, and one team will get to win the trophy.

For the people who don’t know how the elimination process works, there are eight groups made of four teams in each group. The four teams in each group will compete against each other in the group stage, and the standings are based on the points gained from those matches. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage, while the bottom two are eliminated.

As you all saw, Qatar was the first team eliminated on Friday, November 25, after the tournament where they lost 3-1 to Senegal in their second group game. This left Qatar with zero points from both matches with Senegal and Ecuador.

Not many people were surprised by this, because of the fact that Qatar was not supposed to be in the World Cup in the first place. They only qualified because they were the ones hosting it, so they automatically got in. They were the first host country to lose in the group stage.

So far, the teams who have been eliminated were Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Denmark, Iran, Wales, Canada, Qatar, Costa Rica, Germany, Belgium, Cameroon, Serbia, Uruguay, and Ghana. But the team that got eliminated that broke the most people was Mexico.

Everything was going well for Mexico on Wednesday as they needed a win to advance in the 2022 World Cup. But sadly, they fell one goal short. Mexico defeated Saudi Arabia 2-1 but combined with Argentina’s 2-0 win over Poland. Mexico and Poland both finished with four points in Group C. Poland earned second place over Mexico because its goal differential was zero; Mexico was -1.

Before Saudi Arabia’s goal, Mexico and Poland were tied on goal differential, total goals scored, and head-to-head match. Because Poland took fewer yellow cards during the group stage, they still would’ve advanced to the Round of 16, so Mexico needed a third goal. Mexico thought they were safe once they scored the third goal in the 87th minute, but an offside call took the goal off the board.

This marked the first time in 44 years since Mexico last got eliminated in the group stage of a World Cup.

Mexico fans were devastated, once they heard the news. Fans started posting all over social media saying, “Mexico is a much better team than Poland.” “They fought so hard; they deserved so much better.”

After all these amazing teams were eliminated, round 16 starts and there are a whole lot of surprises that can happen from now until the finals.