Forty-eight teams started in this World Cup — now only seven remain.So how do the remaining contenders stack up? Here’s a look at our latest rankings.Six matches, six wins, 16 goals scored, only two conceded… who can stop France winning this World Cup?If Kylian Mbappe (eight goals) doesn’t get you, then Ousmane Dembele (five goals) will instead. As it transpired, both of them got Morocco who, despite being the best African nation at the tournament, provided little resistance to Didier Deschamps’ team.France remain clear favourites to win the tournament, not just because of their ridiculously talented attack (Michael Olise tops the assists chart with five) but also their strong defence. They haven’t conceded a goal in the knockout stages and, to be honest, have barely conceded a chance either.They deservedly remain top of our rankings — and The Athletic’s live projection tool forecasts a 34 per cent chance of them winning the World Cup.Another clean sheet and another win after defeating Portugal thanks to Mikel Merino’s 91st-minute winner.Once more, they limited their opposition to relatively few chances. The curious thing about Spain in this tournament is that their star player, Lamine Yamal, has not hit the heights we know he can yet (one goal, no assists).But Ferran Torres combined with fellow substitute Merino for the winning goal against Portugal, showing the strength in depth of a team that would become even more dangerous if Yamal steps it up a notch. They face Belgium next in the quarter-finals later on Friday.After a smooth-sailing group stage, Argentina’s knockout games have been back-and-forth humdingers against Cape Verde and now Egypt.The Cape Verde game showed something we had seen from them during their run to the trophy four years ago, when they could be susceptible to giving up leads, as they did against the Netherlands and France.But against Egypt, they produced a turnaround victory from 2-0 down, scoring three goals in 13 minutes when it seemed they were heading out.It is a concern that Argentina have laboured this much against teams they were heavy favourites to beat, but then it is also impressive that they have demonstrated the strength of character and will to win to get over the line.The question now is how much have those two matches taken out of them? They face Switzerland next, who have shown they aren’t easy to beat either. The fact they have avoided one of the more fancied teams in the quarter-finals keeps them above England in these rankings.Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported which team had the worst goal differential in the tournament. It was Iraq, not Tunisia. The article has been corrected.
Can anyone stop France? Re-ranking the World Cup teams with seven games remaining
Didier Deschamps' side are the first team into the semi-finals, justifying their long-held position at the top of our rankings
















