Just before the start of the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar, German football legend Mr Jurgen Klinsmann predicted that the quadrennial tournament would startle many people.

“I think this could be a World Cup of surprises because if some of the kind of underdogs — maybe if it’s an African nation, if it’s an Asian team — if they are courageous, I think you can go actually far in this tournament,” Mr Klinsmann said during a press conference in Doha.

He was absolutely right.

With the group stage of the tournament now over, traditional big name teams Germany, Belgium, Uruguay, and Mexico are out. In fact, Mr Klinsmann’s prognostication — if we can call it that — was realised when Japan and South Korea advanced at the expense of Germany and Uruguay, respectively, on the basis of goal difference, despite the fact that Germany and Uruguay won their final matches.

Japan, which first went to the World Cup finals in 1998 and have qualified for each tournament since, shocked many when they defeated Germany 2-1 and then beat Spain by a similar goal margin. On Thursday the Japanese pulled off a stunning 2-1 victory over Spain, while yesterday South Korea created a head-in-hands moment by beating Portugal 2-1.

Mr Klinsmann, a former striker who played in the West Germany team that won the World Cup in 1990 and later coached Germany to third place as hosts in 2006, was also on point in his analysis of the game at that pre-tournament press conference.

“It is not a tournament to sit back and defend,” he said. “I think it’s a tournament that really invites you to go, be courageous, and go forward. I don’t think you go very far if you just have a defensive approach in this tournament.”

That is exactly what the Asian teams that are now through to the knockout stage have done.

So now we are into the knockout stage at which each result will be greeted with sharply contrasting emotions. But that’s the nature of sport. It tugs at human emotion as people’s hearts either swell with pride when they experience the thrill of victory, or they slump into inconsolable beings as they wallow in the agony of defeat.

Outside of the political and social controversies that have dogged this World Cup, it has proven to be one of the most exciting on the pitch. The fact that the talent gap between teams has shrunk considerably is a significant factor. Many footballers are playing in the top leagues across the world, and countries that were once regarded as minions appear to have invested heavily in development of the sport.

All that is good for the future of football, which, as we have often pointed out before in this space, is big business. Hopefully, each Fifa confederation will properly utilise the financial rewards from the tournament to develop the game further, thus providing talented players from their regions with the opportunity to ply their craft and improve their economic circumstances.

The next two weeks will no doubt provide us with a greater feast of football. To say that we, like all lovers of the game, are salivating would be an understatement.