Group I

How Group I advancement works

Each of the 12 groups has 4 teams who play a round-robin — 3 matches each. The top 2 teams from every group advance to the Round of 32 automatically. The 8 best third-placed teams across all groups also advance, for a total of 32 knockout-stage teams. This is a larger knockout bracket than any previous World Cup.

See the full 48-team format guide for tiebreakers and the third-place seeding rules.