From hat tricks to even more hat tricks, the superstars we\u2019ve come to expect every day brilliance delivered in the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage, and then some.<\/p>\n
But this tournament is also where new stars are born, and that was especially true in the first-ever group stage with 48 teams all competing for a spot in the knockout stage.<\/p>\n
To commemorate a historic \u2014 and a just outright fun \u2014 group stage, here are my First and Second All-Group Stage starting lineups:<\/p>\n
JUMP TO: <\/strong>First-Team Group Stage XI<\/strong> | <\/strong>Second-Team Group Stage XI<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span> <\/p>\n Goalkeeper \u00b7\u00a0Spain<\/p>\n Three games, three clean sheets \u2014 Spain marched out of its Group without conceding a single goal, and the star keeper barely had to break a sweat doing it.<\/p>\n Defender \u00b7\u00a0Japan<\/p>\n Led Japan’s back line for the full 90 minutes against the Netherlands and Tunisia and doubled as the build-up engine, leading the Samurai Blue in line-breaking passes on the way to the knockouts.<\/p>\n Defender \u00b7\u00a0Germany<\/p>\n He anchored the defense of Germany’s nine-goal flying start before an ankle injury ended his tournament\u2014a half of group stage dominance too good to leave out.<\/p>\n Defender \u00b7\u00a0Switzerland<\/p>\n The calm, ball-playing head at the heart of the defense that won Switzerland’s group as he helped stymie Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina following a steady opening draw with Qatar.<\/p>\n Defender \u00b7\u00a0Morocco<\/p>\n The right-back and Atlas Lions captain scored a goal and helped set one up in the 4-2 comeback over Haiti in a pivotal performance, and coming down the flank all tournament as Morocco banked seven points.<\/p>\n Midfielder \u00b7\u00a0Brazil<\/p>\n The midfield maestro pulled the strings for Group C winners Brazil and saved his best for last, laying on two assists in the 3-0 win of Scotland.<\/p>\n Midfielder \u00b7\u00a0Senegal<\/p>\n Senegal’s brightest spark with three goals, including the tap-in that sealed the day in a must-win 5-0 performance over Iraq.<\/p>\n Midfielder \u00b7\u00a0England<\/p>\n England’s most creative player\u2014ten chances created in the Three Lions’ first two games\u2014the metronome of Group L winners England before earning a breather against Panama.<\/p>\n Forward \u00b7\u00a0France<\/p>\n With back-to-back braces against Senegal and Iraq \u2014 four goals so far \u2014 the Real Madrid man spearheaded France’s perfect nine-point sweep of its group.<\/p>\n Forward \u00b7\u00a0Argentina<\/p>\n Messi scored every single one of Argentina’s goals in the opening two matches\u2014a hat-trick against Algeria and a brace against Austria. Oh, and he became the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history.<\/p>\n Forward \u00b7\u00a0France<\/p>\n The PSG star reminded everyone he’s the reigning Ballon d’Or winner with a stunning video game-esque first-half hat-trick against Norway, one of the fastest in World Cup history, totaling four goals in the group.<\/p>\n \n \u00a0<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY From hat tricks to even more hat tricks, the superstars we\u2019ve come to expect every day brilliance delivered in the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage, and then some. But this tournament is also where new stars are born, and that was especially true in the first-ever group stage with 48 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}