FIFA World Cup: Meet the winners and losers of the group stage

New Delhi: The 2014 FIFA World Cup has been nothing short of Excellency so far, bringing us 48 matches that have been mostly exciting, goal-laden and full of offensive football. At the end of it all, we're left with 16 teams progressing to the knockout stages and the same number of teams which are on a plane out of Brazil. There have been surprises, shocks, moments of inspiration and stupidity and a few stand-out individuals throughout, and we bring to you the winners and losers from each group.

It can't be easy to carry the hopes of a nation into a World Cup on home soil during your first appearance. And it certainly can't get much better when most of your first-pick team-mates don't turn up for the first three games. Luckily for Brazil, Neymar appears to be well up to the challenge, running riot with four goals already and being comfortably the team's stand-out player.

Cameroon might have come into the tournament with hopes of having an impact, but they were nothing short of terrible. A ragged and undisciplined side in terms of their shape, plan of attack and ability to link play through the middle of the pitch, Cameroon were dominated by Mexico, completely fell apart against Croatia and blown out by Brazil.