Surprises and shocks have characterized this World Cup.

Fifa’s top 10 teams are out in the group stages, while defending champions the USA were saved by the width of a post.

For the first time in their ninth appearance at the tournament, Germany, ranked second, failed to advance past the group stages.

As well as Canada and Brazil, who are ranked seventh and eighth, their World Cup journeys have been cut short. A big side fell at the first hurdle this year, as Milena Bertolini’s Italy lost multiple games in the group stage.

Several of the tournament’s big hitters and favourites are heading home, while Colombia, South Africa, Jamaica, Morocco and Nigeria are taking their place.

“Women’s football is undergoing rapid development at the moment,” said Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall.

As we saw with the USA, Germany, and Brazil, there’s no standing still.

There is a fast pace of development here now among other nations.”

Before the tournament began, it would have been unimaginable for Germany, Canada, Brazil, and Italy to be eliminated in the group stages.

Germany, two-time World Cup winners, thrashed Morocco 6-0 in the tournament opener and were tipped to win it again after that performance.

As a result of the shock 2-1 defeat to Colombia, their position in the tournament was threatened.

The final opponent for Germany in the group was South Korea. South Korea’s Cho So-hyun opened the scoring after six minutes, and while German captain Alexandra Popp equalized, the draw wasn’t enough and Morocco advanced.

Germany was expected to challenge the USA for a third World Cup title after reaching the final of the European Championships last year. The Voss-Tecklenburgs cannot stop Martina Voss-Tecklenburg despite Popp’s best efforts.

In 2019, Canada reached the last 16 of the World Cup and two years later became Olympic champions.

However, they were drawn into the so-called ‘group of death’ and failed to survive. Most predicted that co-hosts Australia and Canada would advance from Group B, which included Australia, Nigeria and Republic of Ireland. After a goalless draw against Nigeria, Bev Priestman’s side defeated Republic of Ireland.

After being completely dismantled by their co-hosts in the final group game, Canada suffered their first group-stage exit since 2011 after losing 4-0 to Australia.

As well as budget cuts, the team were unable to play competitive warm-up games prior to the World Cup due to disputes with their federation.