Soccer: World Cup first round summary

Ronaldo defied the critics with two goals in Brazil's last pool game. Picture / Reuters

BERLIN - Hosts Germany and champions Brazil led the 16 qualifiers for the knockout round of the World Cup with maximum points in the group phase.

Portugal and Spain also won their opening three matches, while 117 goals were scored in a total of 48 games.

Eighteen red cards were shown, one more than in the entire 2002 finals, with 16 matches still to play.

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An analysis of all eight opening-round groups:

GROUP A
Germany got the World Cup underway with a stunning 4-2 win over Costa Rica in the opening match on June 10, with Ecuador signalling their intentions later that day with a 2-0 triumph over Poland.

Germany and Ecuador then sealed their positions in the second round with victories over Poland (1-0) and Costa Rica (3-0) respectively.

The hosts made sure of top spot with a 3-0 win over Ecuador in their final match in Berlin. Costa Rica finished bottom after losing 2-1 to Poland.

GROUP B
England and Sweden were expected to advance and did so, although neither were in top form.

England scored after only four minutes against Paraguay in their opening 1-0 win while the Swedes were held to a surprising 0-0 draw by debutants Trinidad & Tobago.

Victories for England over Trinidad (2-0) and Sweden over Paraguay (1-0) guaranteed the European teams advanced. They drew 2-2 in their final match, leaving England top and facing Ecuador in the second round. Sweden meet Germany.

GROUP C
Argentina emerged as favourites to win the World Cup after their 6-0 destruction of Serbia & Montenegro, who finished bottom with no points.

Argentina opened with a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast and finished top of the group after a 0-0 draw with Netherlands.

The Dutch were second while Ivory Coast, unlucky to be in such a tough group, ended their World Cup debut with a 3-2 win over the Serbs.

GROUP D
Portugal qualified from the group stage for the first time since 1966, winning all three games against Angola (1-0), Iran (2-0) and Mexico (2-1).

Mexico also advanced but Angola, in their first finals, gave a good account of themselves, narrowly losing to Portugal and drawing with Mexico and Iran.

Mexico face Argentina in the second round and Portugal play Netherlands.

GROUP E
The pivotal game in Group E was Ghana's 2-0 win over Czech Republic, who could find no way back after that. Ghana's 2-1 victory over United States in their last match and Italy's 2-0 triumph over the Czechs meant Ghana made it through to the last 16 in their first World Cup.

Italy topped the group as expected with United States last, a poor showing for the nation ranked fifth in FIFA's world rankings.

GROUP F
Champions Brazil had a few scares on the way, did not play particularly well but still beat Croatia (1-0), Australia (2-0) and Japan (4-1).

They have won their last 11 matches in the finals, a record, while Ronaldo's two goals against Japan meant he equalled Gerd Mueller's finals scoring record of 14 goals.

Australia captured the attention with a 3-1 come-from-behind win over Japan and a battling 2-2 draw with Croatia which sealed a place in the last 16 in their first World Cup for 32 years.

Australia now face Italy while Brazil meet Ghana.

GROUP G
Switzerland topped a tight group ahead of France and South Korea while debutants Togo were eliminated after the opening two matches.

Korea, second going into the last round of matches, missed out on qualifying after losing their final match 2-0 to Switzerland. France, third before the last game, beat Togo 2-0 to take second place.

GROUP H
Spain won three matches, starting with a 4-0 demolition of Ukraine, who recovered to beat Saudi Arabia 4-0 and Tunisia 1-0 to qualify.

Spain face France in the next round while Ukraine play Switzerland.

- REUTERS