France stayed top in who’s left in the World Cup after the group stage, holding the No 1 spot in 's World Cup 2026 power rankings. The list covered 48 nations, and France remained the benchmark as the tournament moved into the knockout stage.
Mbappé, Olise and Deschamps
Kylian Mbappé set the tone for France by scoring twice against Senegal. Michael Olise played a major supporting role, and Didier Deschamps had a side that kept enough control to stay ahead of every other team in the ranking.
That top spot is not built on one result alone. The ranking places France above the rest of the field because the group-stage evidence combined a fast start, a proven finisher and enough balance around the front line to keep the team at the top.
Lionel Messi at 39
Argentina bring the sharpest complication into the ranking. Lionel Messi turned 39 this week, yet he still came off the bench to score his sixth goal in the group stage after earlier scoring twice against Austria and a hat-trick against Algeria.
He became the World Cup's record goalscorer while Argentina leaned on him again. That leaves a team that still depends on an older captain even as the knockout stage begins, which makes the rest of the bracket harder to read than the top line suggests.
Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil
Spain opened with a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, then scored three goals in the opening 24 minutes against Saudi Arabia before navigating Uruguay well in their next match. Lamine Yamal was fit to start, which gave Spain a cleaner attacking base after a flat opener.
The Netherlands also climbed through the group stage on direct production. Brian Brobbey scored three goals in two starts, and Virgil van Dijk summed up his threat with this line: "Brian’s quality is so strong. We’ve seen it obviously throughout the whole year in the Premier League. If he has you pinned up, you can’t get the ball". Brazil, meanwhile, finished with Vinícius Júnior on four goals.
Colombia, El Tri and the co-hosts
Colombia got its defining moments from Daniel Muñoz, who kickstarted proceedings against Uzbekistan for Colombia and then scored the only goal against DR Congo for Colombia. Nestor Lorenzo also put the pressure in plain terms: "The other day I said that when they hired me, they hired me to qualify, and now people want you to win the World Cup".
The co-hosts added a different kind of case to the ranking by winning all three group games without conceding a goal. Julián Quiñones scored the first goal of the tournament within 10 minutes, and Javier Aguirre closed the loop on the group stage with a blunt message: "Now comes the knockout stage; statistics and data don’t matter. We’re achieving things, but what lies ahead is what counts". The field is down to the teams that survived the group stage; the next sorting happens on the pitch, not in a table.
