Correction: Congo DR vs Uzbekistan was not a dead rubber

Correction — and an honest one.

We called this a dead rubber. We were wrong.

Going into the final round we read the table as "both teams eliminated, nothing to play for," and on that basis we passed the match as meaningless. The table said otherwise: Congo DR, on one point, were win-and-in for a best-third-place spot — and they took it, beating Uzbekistan 3-1, coming from behind, to reach the Round of 32 for the first time in their history.

So this was not a dead rubber. It was a must-win night for Congo DR, and we should have read it as one — weighing whether a motivated side that had to win, against an opponent with less on the line, was worth a closer look, instead of dismissing it.

The mistake was ours, and it was basic: we trusted a standings summary that said "eliminated" without checking the arithmetic — one point plus a win is four points, which is usually enough for a best third-place spot. We have tightened how we verify standings so it does not repeat.

We would rather show you the error, and how we should have read it, than quietly bury it. That is the whole point of what we do here. This corrects our original No-Play card, which remains published as a record of the error.