Before gazing into the round of 16 crystal ball, it's worthwhile taking a moment or two to look at how the FIFA rankings held up against reality. So, how did the FIFA women's rankings going into the World Cup compare to the finishing orders in the group stage? The actual order of finish over the six groups matched the FIFA rankings in 11 of the 24 positions. The group that varied the most was Group C and the order of finish was Italy, Australia, Brazil, and Jamaica. If you had followed the FIFA rankings in order to predict the 16 qualifiers for the round of 16, you would have got 14 right.

Source: Forbes June 21, 2019 12:50 UTC