FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Third Round of Group Matches

After 48 matches in the group stage of the FIFA World Cup, the round of 16 starts today, Saturday December 3, kicking off with Netherlands vs United States.

The last day of the group stage did not disappoint and tested the hearts of many soccer fans. Let’s take a look at some of the most outstanding FIFA moments. 

Japan and Morocco, top of the group

Japan surprised many with their victory over Germany, and they did it again by winning against Spain.

The move to the round of 16 has had a very positive impact on the Japan’s social networks and on those of the Japan Football Federation, with an increase in followers, especially after the two victories.

Morocco also came as a surprise in a group where they faced the runner-up in the world, Croatia, Belgium and Canada. Since the start of the FIFA World Cup, the Moroccan team has a earned almost 500K new followers — 445K of them on Instagram.

Stephanie Frappart, makes history

The Germany-Costa Rica match was vibrant and also historic, as it was the first time a woman refereed a World Cup match. The image of Stephanie Frappart along with her assistants, Neuza Back and Karen Diaz, went viral and was shown across many media companies’ social networks.

Blinkfire API in Qatar

For several years, our customers have connected their business intelligence tools with our API to analyze, transform, and report social media and sponsorship statistics.

The below image is how daily engagement has evolved on the World Cup – Qatar’s Instagram account. The daily average engagement during the group stage was 13.3 million, and the day with the highest total engagement was November 24 with 22.3 million engagements.

Instagram continues to be the social network that generates the most interactions. During the last day of the group stage, from November 29 to December 2, this was the distribution of engagement across the FIFA World Cup networks.

BrandSpotter™ favorites

We’ve talked many times about BrandSpotter™, our proprietary and patented AI and CV technology that not only detects brands but also physical assets and scenes.

During this FIFA World Cup, BrandSpotter™ is working hard but also enjoying great images. Here are some of our favorites.