World Cup 2026: Cape Verde’s Messi meeting, Doctor Congo in dreamland & the Habsburg Derby
About this episode
The episode discusses the knockout phase of the 2026 World Cup, highlighting debutant teams and politically charged matchups.
The 2026 World Cup group-stage is over – and we’re already under way with the knockout phase of the tournament! Among the teams in the last 32 are seven knockout debutants: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, DR Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Cape Verde, who have been the story of the tournament and face Lionel Messi’s Argentina next. But which other countries reached the knockouts on their first-ever World Cup appearance? And which others made it through the group phase with three draws? Elsewhere, there are some ties with intriguing political backdrops. Austria face Spain in a battle of the two branches of the Habsburg family, while co-hosts Mexico and Ecuador go head-to-head in the Latin American Embassy Derby. There’s also a sinister history between Germany and Paraguay, an assassination plot involving England and DR Congo, and an air base that will link the USA and Bosnia forever. Plus: South Korea’s president intervenes following the country’s miserable World Cup performance, Marcelo Bielsa has a full-scale meltdown on camera and Tunisia stake a claim for being the worst team at the World Cup. Sign up to The Sweeper's Patreon here…
People in this episode
Hosts: Lee Wingate, Paul Watson
Topics covered
- World Cup 2026
- knockout phase
- football debutants
- political matchups
- team performances
- historical context
Keywords
- World Cup
- football
- knockout
- debutants
- politics
- Lionel Messi
- Marcelo Bielsa
- team performance
- historical context
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, DR Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Cape Verde, Austria, Spain
More episodes of The Sweeper - A World Football Podcast
- World Cup 2026: Cape Verde’s tourism boost, Paraguay’s rags to riches keeper & an England fan manhunt
- World Cup 2026: The Gijón grudge match, a Dutch royal groundhop & Hervé Renard’s crisp white shirts
- World Cup 2026: Balogun’s curious US citizenship, Peru’s mascot drug raid & Algeria’s sleep tax
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