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Confederations Cup scenarios: Who can advance to knockout stage?

Here's how each of the seven teams alive can qualify for the Confederations Cup knockout stage.
SI.com Staff|
Confederations Cup scenarios: Who can advance to knockout stage?
Confederations Cup scenarios: Who can advance to knockout stage?

All eight teams are two games into the Confederations Cup group stage, but not one team has punched its ticket into the knockout phase just yet.

The four favorites–Germany, Chile, Portugal and Mexico–are all in strong positions to go through, but host Russia and upstarts Cameroon and Australia remain alive entering this weekend's finales, with New Zealand the only team eliminated already. If 2009 taught us anything, it's that you can't rule out the incredible: For the USA to advance, it needed to overcome a six-goal gap in differential while beating Egypt and needing Brazil to top Italy, and that's the exact scenario that played out.

That being said, here are the scenarios for each of the remaining teams in contention to secure a place in the knockout stage:

GROUP A

Mexico: Advances with a win or draw vs. Russia.

Portugal: Advances with a win over New Zealand; Can advance with a draw, should Russia not beat Mexico.

Russia: Advances with a win over Mexico; Can advance with a draw and New Zealand win over Portugal in which Russia winds up edging Portugal via tiebreaker.

New Zealand: Eliminated from contention.

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GROUP B

Chile: Advances with a win or draw vs. Australia.

Germany: Advances with a win or draw vs. Cameroon.

Australia: Advances with a win of two goals or more vs. Chile

Cameroon: Advances with a win of three goals or more vs. Germany.

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SI.com Staff
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