I thought they weren't anymore in the first place.. There is a ranking system that put them first. I would say the first to leave in the next stage once they pass the group stage.
BTW Germany did a great job losing vs Japan. Such defeat made this version of World Cup very weird, even Japanese didn't believe they won it.

So far for African teams we have:
2 draws: Tunisia and Morocco
1 defeat: Senegal
Tomorrow we have Ghana and Cameroon matches that will be interesting Portugal and Switzerland respectively.
Basically all games in the first round for African teams were hard but they did good overall standing in front of powerful teams. Senegal lost its game but they could do better, hopefully they will learn from their mistakes for the next matches.

Congratulations to France and England for being the only European teams to get good results. Netherlands won too but with difficulty. The other teams got a draw and surprise surprise, Germany lost vs Japan with 2 goals to 1!! Teams and fans are speechless
Spain and Belgium next, hopefully they will not continue bad results

Germany 1 - 2 Japan
I don't know what's going on with the "favourite teams" in this version of World Cup but it is weird to see such poor performance and creativity against what supposed to be weaker opponents. These underdog teams are exciting and insist to fight and pass to the next level! Much respect.
Few minutes left on that game and Japan is still trying to push and score. The German defence is making silly mistakes sometimes.

I saw a part of that game and I saw a Mexican dominance while Poland was playing defence too much. Lewandowski missed a penalty and wasn't able to score a single goal for Poland for many games which draws many criticism but that doesn't mean that his days are over imo.
For Australia now, after a good start, they were crashed badly by France by 4 goals. Australia chances to stay became very low tho.

The amount of surprises in today's games is beyond everyone expectations. I am just wondering if there is someone that placed a bet on Saudi Arabia to win against Argentina. How many expected Tunisia to get a draw vs Denmark?
Poland to draw against Mexico is ok but France to receive an early goal and lose a defender in the first minutes of the game was hilarious. They recovered from that mistake and they are leading 2-1 right now. Australia should focus and try to get a draw at least.

Came here to report that since I just read it. It was an expected move after all. ManU is pissed from CR7 attitude, his dropped performance and of course his latest speech about the club and the coach. It is whether not playing a single game under Ten Hag and keep giving him money for free or get ride of him since he will leave the club after all by the end of the season.
It is just a bad way to get out of the club that he owes it much..

There is many surprises in this World Cup. I have the feeling that European teams dropped slightly in performance comparing to less favourites teams or we are underestimating them.
No need to talk about Argentina surprising defeat or Wales hard draw.. Denmark is also having hard times. There is Poland and France that will have games today, we will see how they could perform.

What do you think about Tunisia? I am surprised about their performance today. Hopefully they can win. BTW there is a doubt about penalty for Tunisia but it was cancelled by VAR although it is an obvious hand.
For Senegal there is still chance for them to qualify, they need to win the remaining 2 games.

Bayern will end up signing a striker whether it is him or another player. They are doing good so far but they need more firepower to be able to maintain positive results whether it was in Bundesliga or Champions League.
Dortmund won't hold its players for long as usual so whenever they find a suitable offer they will let him go so it is up for Bayern to decide.

Today's game were surprising so far!
Saudi Arabia made an unexpected move by stopping Argentina successive victories and won against them after being 1 goal behind
I am imagining Saudis will not forget that match for the next century.
Now Tunisia and Denmark is an interesting game, both teams are pushing for a goal to unlock the game but it isn't that easy.

Senegal 0 - 1 Netherlands!
Although Senegal pushed more in the second half and was close to score but Netherlands and its goalkeeper are doing good, he saved them at least twice in these difficult minutes. Few minutes left and things is getting harder for Senegal..

Indeed that what I was talking about. Look at Senegal now vs Netherlands, they are doing pretty much good but you feel that they are lacking a finish touch. Their attack line is doing its best but can do better and be more threatening. Even if we consider that Mane won't score, his presence will put more pressure on the defence line of the opponent and make his teammates play more comfortably.
Anyway I hope Senegal to get at least a point in this match.

Edit: Netherlands scored...

Indeed the game is interesting and the most balanced so far comparing to Qatar and Iran ones. You have the feeling that there is a goal that can be scored at any moment. It is true that it is a goalless so a little bit annoying but a single counter attack can reverse everything. It is unfortunate to not see Mane here, you feel his absence.
I prefer to see a draw between them. Both teams deserve to pass to the next stage imo.

Senegal chances dropped after Sadio Mane injury and withdrawal from the list of players unfortunately. They were able to advance to the next stage but that doesn't mean they lost that possibility obviously but their chance was reduced.
Ghana could pass if they play good, their group is a bit harder than Senegal but easier than the other African teams. Tunisia won't pass, Cameroon isn't lucky and Morocco might get a chance.

Since when CR7 cares about names more than money and titles?
He recognise what ManU did to him and especially Ferguson but for now he doesn't like Ten Hag and blame the team for keeping him and reducing his participation and not supporting him.
CR7 was a legend in ManU and Real Madrid but he ruined it and he is almost banned from Real Madrid and soon from ManU. Other clubs already barred him. There isn't much choices left other than Chelsea in EPL AFAIK.

I like "signed 2 new players"
Pogba decision to not undergo a surgery at the beginning of the season made him, his national team and Juve suffer a lot. Hopefully he will recover by January and will not require additional time and especially avoid another injury, just like Benzema..
For Chiesa, he will return for sure but it is unlikely to see him playing like before after the knee injury imo. Unfortunately many players went through this and wasn't lucky. I don't want to be pessimistic but I hope he could maintain his good form.

The promoted teams have always difficulties to stay in the league for the first season since their players are weaker and weren't used to play vs professional teams mainly.
Their most important goal is to stay in the league first then to progress in the ranking whenever they consolidate the team with new good players.
Unfortunately for Ajaccio and Auxerre is that they joined Ligue 1 in the hardest season where 4 teams at once will drop to the second league..

Ecuador isn't that good in this match. It was Qatar that was particularly bad that made Ecuador looks good!
Qatar defence was medium to weak and under repetitive attacks and pressure which made them make many mistakes. There wasn't also coordination between them and the goalkeeper that made unsuccessful decisions too especially in the cancelled goal.. The midfield of Qatar was quite empty to reduce the pressure on the Qatari defence and to plan a coordinated attack. Now the attack line was playing most of the time? in their own zone except for some attacks? I can't remember more than 2 unsuccessful attempts made so we couldn't say how good was the defence of Ecuador. BTW Qatar was close to score in both attempts which would be embarrassing for Ecuador.
What I can say is that Ecuador dropped after the second goal and if they were playing vs a good team they would definitely lose that game.

VAR was efficient for this cancelled goal otherwise we would see 3 goals at least.
I am particularly disappointed from Qatar. At the opposite I was quite sure they won't win but I was expecting a good performance and maybe a draw. Conmebol teams is way better than AFC teams and Ecuador isn't an easy opponent.
Honestly after the first (cancelled) goal in less than 3 minutes, I was like whoah promising! I still don't know why Ecuador dropped and let Qatari made some useless attempts at the end of the first half and in the second half. Qatari players were passing the ball between each other then returning it to the first player without finding a way to progress before ending the cercle they were creating with the ball.
That was a shameful match for them, basically everyone was disappointed with their performance and a catastrophic failure was so close since they didn't receive more goals. They will definitely leave the competition early and I doubt they could score more than 3 goals, I would say even more than 1 but who knows...