2018 FIFA World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, which is a men's football tournament that takes place every four years and is organized by FIFA. The tournament took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010. This was the first World Cup taking place in Eastern Europe.

The defending champions were Germany. France won the tournament after defeating Croatia 4–2. This was France's second World Cup title.

 Qualified teams 
Russia is the host country, so the Russian team automatically qualified.

 Team Qualified as Date ofqualification  CONMEBOL qualification 3rd place  10 October 2017  CONCACAF v AFC play-off winners  15 November 2017  UEFA Group H winners  3 September 2017  CONMEBOL qualification winner  28 March 2017  CONMEBOL qualification 4th place  10 October 2017  CONCACAF Fifth Round runners-up  7 October 2017  UEFA Second Round winners  12 November 2017  UEFA Second Round winners  14 November 2017  CAF Third Round Group E winners  8 October 2017  UEFA Group F winners  5 October 2017  UEFA Group A winners  10 October 2017  UEFA Group C winners  5 October 2017  UEFA Group I winners  9 October 2017  AFC Third Round Group A winners  12 June 2017  AFC Third Round Group B winners  31 August 2017  CONCACAF Fifth Round top 3  1 September 2017  CAF Third Round Group C winners  11 November 2017  CAF Third Round Group B winners  7 October 2017  CONCACAF Fifth Round 3rd place  10 October 2017  OFC v CONMEBOL play-off winners  15 November 2017  UEFA Group E winners  8 October 2017  UEFA Group B winners  10 October 2017  Host  2 December 2010  AFC Third Round Group B runners-up  5 September 2017  CAF Third Round Group D winners  10 November 2017  UEFA Group D winners  9 October 2017  AFC Third Round Group A runners-up  5 September 2017  UEFA Group G winners  6 October 2017  UEFA Second Round winners  13 November 2017  UEFA Second Round winners  12 November 2017  CAF Third Round Group A winners  11 November 2017  CONMEBOL qualification runners-up  10 October 2017

Draw
The draw was held in Moscow at 18:00 MSK, on Friday 1 December 2017
The teams were divided into 4 pots, 8 teams each. The number in parenthesis show positions in the FIFA World Rankings prior to the tournament.

 Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (65) (hosts)
 (1)
 (2)
 (3)
 (4)
 (5)
 (6)
 (7) (8)
 (10)
 (11)
 (12)
 (13)
 (16)
 (17)
 (18) (19)
 (21)
 (22)
 (25)
 (28)
 (30)
 (32)
 (34) (38)
 (41)
 (43)
 (44)
 (48)
 (49)
 (62)
 (63)

 Stadiums 
Moscow:
 Luzhniki Stadium
 Otkrytiye Arena

Saint Petersburg:
 Krestovsky Stadium

Kaliningrad:
 Kaliningrad Stadium

Nizhny Novgorod:
 Nizhny Novgorod Stadium

Volgograd:
 Volgograd Arena

Yekaterinburg:
 Central StadiumSochi:
 Fisht Olympic Stadium

Rostov-on-Don:
 Rostov Arena

Saransk:
 Mordovia Arena

Samara:
 Cosmos Arena

Kazan
 Kazan Arena

Group stage
The top two teams of each group advance to the round of 16. Matches are played on a round-robin basis.

Tiebreakers
The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows (regulations Article 32.5):

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

 Knockout stage

Bracket

Round of 16

cjk

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Discipline

A player is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:
 Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious offences)
 Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches; yellow cards expire after the completion of the quarter-finals (yellow card suspensions are not carried forward to any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were served during the tournament:

 Player Offence(s) Suspension(s)  Carlos Sánchez  in Group H vs Japan (matchday 1; 19 June) Group H vs Poland (matchday 2; 24 June)  Yussuf Poulsen  in Group C vs Peru (matchday 1; 16 June) in Group C vs Australia (matchday 2; 21 June) Group C vs France (matchday 3; 26 June)  Jérôme Boateng  in Group F vs Sweden (matchday 2; 23 June) Group F vs South Korea (matchday 3; 27 June)  Armando Cooper  in Group G vs Belgium (matchday 1; 18 June) in Group G vs England (matchday 2; 24 June) Group G vs Tunisia (matchday 3; 28 June)  Michael Amir Murillo  in Group G vs Belgium (matchday 1; 18 June) in Group G vs England (matchday 2; 24 June) Group G vs Tunisia (matchday 3; 28 June)  Igor Smolnikov  in Group A vs Uruguay (matchday 3; 25 June) Round of 16 vs Spain (1 July)  Sebastian Larsson  in Group F vs Germany (matchday 2; 23 June) in Group F vs Mexico (matchday 3; 27 June) Round of 16 vs Switzerland (3 July)  Héctor Moreno  in Group F vs Germany (matchday 1; 17 June) in Group F vs Sweden (matchday 3; 27 June) Round of 16 vs Brazil (2 July)  Stephan Lichtsteiner  in Group E vs Brazil (matchday 1; 17 June) in Group E vs Costa Rica (matchday 3; 27 June) Round of 16 vs Sweden (3 July)  Fabian Schär  in Group E vs Brazil (matchday 1; 17 June) in Group E vs Costa Rica (matchday 3; 27 June) Round of 16 vs Sweden (3 July)  Blaise Matuidi  in Group C vs Peru (matchday 2; 21 June) in Round of 16 vs Argentina (30 June) Quarter-finals vs Uruguay (6 July)  Casemiro  in Group E vs Switzerland (matchday 1; 17 June) in Round of 16 vs Mexico (2 July) Quarter-finals vs Belgium (6 July)  Mikael Lustig  in Group F vs Mexico (matchday 3; 27 June) in Round of 16 vs Switzerland (3 July) Quarter-finals vs England (7 July)  Thomas Meunier  in Group G vs Panama (matchday 1; 18 June) in Quarter-finals vs Brazil (6 July) Semi-finals vs France (10 July)

Awards
Golden BallSilver BallBronze Ball Luka Modrić Eden Hazard Antoine GriezmannGolden BootSilver BootBronze Boot Harry Kane Antoine Griezmann Romelu Lukaku6 goals, 0 assists4 goals, 2 assists4 goals, 1 assistGolden Glove Thibaut CourtoisBest Young Player Kylian MbappéFIFA Fair Play Award

Prize money
Prize money amounts were announced in October 2017.

 Position Amount (USD million) Per team Total Champions 38 38 Runners-up 28 28 Third place 24 24 Fourth place 22 22 5th–8th place 16 64 9th–16th place 12 96 17th–32nd place 8 128 Total 400

References

 Other websites 
 FIFA.com 2018 website 
 Welcome2018.com