The International Committee of Mediterranean Games can be proud of its football teams. Three  national teams of countries – member of ICMG, France, Croatia and Morocco were among the four best teams of the World Cup.

France beaten in the final by Messi’s Argentina after an epic match. Despite a hat-trick from Kylian Mbappé which allowed France to return to the game, the Albiceleste emerged victorious from a penalty shootout during which the Blues fell twice (3-3, 4-2 tab).

Dominated for nearly 60 minutes by an attacking Argentinian team which prevented France to create its play, the Blues were trailing 2-0 thanks to goals from Messi and Angel Di Maria before Kylian Mbappé scored twice to put the France into the game. The regural time ended with a score 2-2, and Messi and Mbappé scored a goal each, to send the two teams to penalties, like the 2006 World Cup final, lost by the France team against Italy. Following two shots on goal missed by the Tricolores, Gonzalo Montiel scored to offer the 2022 World Cup to the Argentines.

In an exciting third place match, Morocco lost to an experienced and more effective Croatian team. The Croatians beat the Atlas Lions thanks to goals from Josko Gvardiol (7th) and Mislav Orsic (42nd). Despite the equalization of Achraf Dari (9th),  the Moroccans failed to come back in the match.

For the first time in history, an African nation finished in the top 4 of the World Cup. Until now, no African team has ever really played a big role in the World Cup.

Africa has been represented since 1934 with the first participation of Egypt. Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010 are the African teams that reached the quarter-finals but did not further qualify.