A record nine African nations reached the round of 32, the most the continent has ever sent to a World Cup knockout stage, and Egypt became the first of them to win a knockout tie. 1
The expanded 48-team format, whose group stage closed with record attendance , was criticised before kickoff as diluted, most loudly over the burnout an extra knockout round would add. Several of these African sides came through the third-place qualifying route the expansion introduced, a mechanism that hands the eight best group third-placers a path the old 32-team format never offered. Take that route away and the field narrows back towards the same established powers.
Cape Verde pushing the holders to extra time, and Egypt's penalty win over Australia, are the newcomers answering the dilution charge on the pitch. The same expansion that widened the field also strains the veterans who sell it, yet in this window it has looked more like vindication than the mistake its critics forecast.
