Desert fest: Upset oasis stays fertile

"Fantastic atmosphere, great goals, incredible excitement, surprises, small teams beating big teams," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said yesterday. 56 of the 64 matches have so far played out but, prior to it, the World Cup has almost seen it all in the 48 matches in its group-stage fixtures.

Scripts were flipped in parkour-esque fashion. The frequency with which upsets kept materialising must have forced writers to consider tilting the narrative towards teams on the rise rather than on upsets when describing the outstanding feats of so-called smaller nations.

"Well, there are no more small teams and no more big teams. The level is very, very equal," Infantino reiterated.

Not that a string of upsets was uncommon to the previous editions, but improbability had become the norm in the first-ever November edition when we look back and see that, barring South Korea, three teams -- Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Costa Rica -- exited the World Cup despite beating the eventual group champions.

Moreover, only five teams -- Netherlands, England, USA, Morocco and Croatia -- avoided a defeat in group stages.

Furthermore, while seven of the top nine-ranked teams qualified for the Round of 16, six teams ranked below 16 in the world also progressed beyond the group stages.  Only two teams confirmed progress after the first two rounds of group games, leaving a majority of participants with a taste of the knockout round before it actually began.

"For the first time as well, national teams from all continents going to the knock-out phase, for the first time in history. This shows that football is really becoming truly global," said the FIFA president, who would be delighted that the Greatest Show on Earth has captivated all, but by now has done so purely on football terms, paving the way for the controversies surrounding the Qatar edition to be somewhat shrugged under the carpet.

The Round of 16 was always going to be tough nut to crack for the teams outside Europe and South America, with the sudden weight of expectations overwhelming the underdogs.

Quite predictably, USA, Australia, Senegal, Japan and South Korea bowed out, thus the onus to keep the flame of upsets, or uprisings, alive fell to Morocco as they faced off against former 2010 champions Spain on Tuesday.

Ultimately, Morocco not only hoisted the African flag and prevented a Europe-South America hegemony, but the Atlas Lions stifled Spanish tactics, rendering them toothless, while executing their own plans to near pragmatic perfection before deservingly prevailing in the tiebreakers.

Africa has bestowed the world with the likes of Roger Milla, George Weah, Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, Nwankwo Kanu, Samuel Eto'o and many more. Now they are one step away from the continent's maiden semifinal berth.

Fair to say, Morocco will have the backing of more than their own continent as their fairy-tale run rolls on.