Gareth Southgate's side qualified comfortably as Harry Kane became only the third Three Lions man - after Sir Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker - to score a hat-trick at the finals.
Kane converted two spot kicks and had his third goal deflected in via his heel as England thumped Panama 6-1 in their second game. They had led 5-0 at half time.
The Tottenham Hotspur striker has been in fine form indeed - and, as his treble against the Panamanians followed a dramatic match-winning brace against Tunisia, his total of five goals means he currently leads the race for the Golden Boot.
Kane, of course, could not add to his tally in the third group match against Belgium - he was rested along with six others as both Southgate and Red Devils coach Roberto Martinez made a raft of changes.
Unsurprisingly, the squad shake-ups resulted in a largely soporific affair, settled by one of the few moments of real quality - a fine curling strike by Adnan Januzaj just after half time.
Certainly, it was a low-key way for this wonderful group stage to end.
In all, there have been 122 goals in 48 games at a respectable average of 2.54 per game. Impressively, it took until the 37th match for there to be a 0-0 draw.
Indeed, all 32 participants have had something to cheer at some point with every team managing to find the net at least twice.
Of course, the introduction of video assistant referees (VAR) has had a significant impact in adding to the drama, and there have been no fewer than 25 penalties awarded so far.
For the most part, VAR has actually helped referees ultimately make the right calls - and it has also generally got the decisions correct within a reasonable time period.
Nevertheless, it must be accepted that it has not been perfect either - and, in particular, the conclusion to Group B threatened to descend into farce.
As the tense Portugal v Iran game headed to its conclusion, weak referee Enrique Caceres awarded a nonsensical spot-kick for handball against Southampton right-back Cedric Soares.
Karim Ansarifard converted the penalty to bring Team Melli level, and the goal would ultimately cost the Portuguese top spot.
That only happened, though, because VAR actually worked well in the other match between Spain and Morocco.
Iago Aspas scored a late equaliser for La Roja which was originally ruled out for offside but that incorrect decision was overturned using the technology. Spain, nonetheless, are perhaps one of the least convincing group winners in living memory.
At least, Groups A and C were pretty straightforward. In Group A, hosts Russia advanced behind nine-point Uruguay - while, in Group C, France and Denmark both progressed after the pair played out an instantly forgettable 0-0 stalemate.
Generally, though, the group phase has been remarkably competitive - with several big fish finding themselves under the cosh, though none more so than Argentina.
Having taken just one point from their opening two matches against Iceland and Croatia, it looked for all of the world as if the Argentines' campaign was going to end in complete ignominy.
Now, of course, the struggles of La Albiceleste should not really have come as too much of a surprise - they only just made it through qualifying in their final match, and the attacking talents of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, and Paulo Dybala have been regularly undermined by a creaky defence.
It therefore even came as a shock to his own mother when centre-back Marcus Rojo popped up in the box to volley home an 86th-minute winner against Nigeria.
Argentina scrambled through then, while current favourites Brazil also did not make life too easy for themselves after being held to a 1-1 draw in their opening match against Switzerland.
Nevertheless, Neymar and co never looked in too much trouble as they eased to a 2-0 win over Serbia in their third game to finish top of Group E ahead of the Swiss.
Defending champions Germany, meanwhile, were in trouble from the start. A deserved defeat to Mexico in their opening Group F match was celebrated so hard by fans in Mexico City, they actually caused an earthquake.
And Joachim Loew's men experienced one hell of an aftershock in their second match against Sweden as they fell behind and then, having got level, went down to 10 men.
Sweden, though, struggled to make their man advantage count, and committed a series of silly fouls around their own box as they looked to defend the draw.
The inevitable happened, and - deep in stoppage time - another free-kick on the edge of the area provided the ammunition for Toni Kroos to produce a stunning match-winning strike.
Germany appeared to have saved their World Cup campaign but, in the final round of group games, they still needed to beat South Korea especially as the much-improved Swedes were hammering Mexico.
Instead, the match against the Koreans became an exercise in frustration and eventually futility for the Nationalmannschaft as they searched for the single goal which would take them through.
As the match headed into stoppage time, there was a goal - two, in fact - but both were scored by South Korea who took advantage of the Germans desperately pouring forward.
Germany were out - and thus became the fourth defending champions since 1998 to be eliminated in the group stage of the following World Cup after France in 2002, Italy in 2010, and Spain in 2014.
Incredibly, the Germans' stunning exit was matched for excitement on the following day by the permutations during the final matches in Group H.
Colombia recovered well from an early defeat to finish top of the section but, behind them, Japan and Senegal finished level on points, goal difference, and goals scored having drawn 2-2 against each other.
Ultimately, the Japanese progressed courtesy of their fair play record - they had picked up four yellow cards compared to six for Senegal - and, if that had also been level, a knockout place would have been decided on the drawing of lots.
Thankfully, it did not quite come to that - but the unlucky exit of the Senegalese means this is the first World Cup without an African team in the knockout stages since 1982.
The Last 16 is in fact comprised of 10 European teams, four from South America, one from Central America (Mexico), and one from Asia (Japan).
But the absence of any African involvement in this World Cup is probably the only thing which this brilliant tournament is lacking.
There are only 16 teams left now and only 16 matches - but they could be the best yet. Bring on the knockouts!
| GROUP A | |||||||||
| ITV | 4pm | Thu 14-June | RUSSIA | 5-0 | SAUDI ARABIA | Moscow | |||
| Gazinskiy 12, Cheryshev 43, 90+1 Dzyuba 71, Golovin 90+4 | |||||||||
| BBC | 1pm | Fri 15-June | EGYPT | 0-1 | URUGUAY | Yekaterinburg | |||
| Gimenez 89 | |||||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Tue 19-June | RUSSIA | 3-1 | EGYPT | St Petersburg | |||
| Fathy 47 og, Cheryshev 59 Dzyuba 62 | Salah 73 pen | ||||||||
| BBC | 4pm | Wed 20-June | URUGUAY | 1-0 | SAUDI ARABIA | Rostov-on-Don | |||
| Suarez 23 | |||||||||
| ITV | 3pm | Mon 25-June | SAUDI ARABIA | 2-1 | EGYPT | Volgograd | |||
| Al Faraj 45+6 pen Al Dawsari 90+5 | Salah 22 | ||||||||
| ITV | 3pm | Mon 25-June | URUGUAY | 3-0 | RUSSIA | Samara | |||
| Suarez 10, Cheryshev 23 og Cavani 90 |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) URUGUAY | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 9 |
| (Q) RUSSIA | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 6 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| Egypt | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| GROUP B | |||||||
| ITV | 4pm | Fri 15-June | MOROCCO | 0-1 | IRAN | St Petersburg | |
| Bouhaddouz 90+5 og | |||||||
| BBC | 4pm | Fri 15-June | PORTUGAL | 3-3 | SPAIN | Sochi | |
| Ronaldo 4 pen, 44, 88 | Costa 24, 55, Nacho 58 | ||||||
| BBC | 1pm | Wed 20-June | PORTUGAL | 1-0 | MOROCCO | Moscow | |
| Ronaldo 4 | |||||||
| ITV | 7pm | Wed 20-June | IRAN | 0-1 | SPAIN | Kazan | |
| Costa 54 | |||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Mon 25-June | IRAN | 1-1 | PORTUGAL | Saransk | |
| Ansarifard 90+3 pen | Quaresma 45 | ||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Mon 25-June | SPAIN | 2-2 | MOROCCO | Kaliningrad | |
| Isco 19, Aspas 90+1 | Boutaib 14, En-Nesyri 81 |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) SPAIN | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| (Q) PORTUGAL | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Iran | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Morocco | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| GROUP C | ||||||
| BBC | 11am | Sat 16-June | FRANCE | 2-1 | AUSTRALIA | Kazan |
| Griezmann 58 pen, Pogba 80 | Jedinak 62 pen | |||||
| BBC | 5pm | Sat 16-June | PERU | 0-1 | DENMARK | Saransk |
| Poulsen 59 | ||||||
| ITV | 1pm | Thu 21-June | DENMARK | 1-1 | AUSTRALIA | Samara |
| Eriksen 7 | Jedinak 39 pen | |||||
| ITV | 4pm | Thu 21-June | FRANCE | 1-0 | PERU | Yekaterinburg |
| Mbappe 34 | ||||||
| ITV | 3pm | Tue 26-June | AUSTRALIA | 0-2 | PERU | Sochi |
| Carrillo 18 Guerrero 50 | ||||||
| ITV | 3pm | Tue 26-June | DENMARK | 0-0 | FRANCE | Moscow |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) FRANCE | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| (Q) DENMARK | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Peru | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| GROUP D | ||||||
| ITV | 2pm | Sat 16-June | ARGENTINA | 1-1 | ICELAND | Moscow |
| Aguero 19 | Finnbogason 23 | |||||
| ITV | 8pm | Sat 16-June | CROATIA | 2-0 | NIGERIA | Kaliningrad |
| Etebo 32 og, Modric 71 pen | ||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Thu 21-June | ARGENTINA | 0-3 | CROATIA | Nizhny Novgorod |
| Rebic 53 Modric 80 Rakitic 90+1 | ||||||
| BBC | 4pm | Fri 22-June | NIGERIA | 2-0 | ICELAND | Volgograd |
| Musa 49, 75 | ||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Tue 26-June | ICELAND | 1-2 | CROATIA | Rostov-on-Don |
| G Sigurdsson 76 pen | Badelj 53 Perisic 90 | |||||
| BBC | 7pm | Tue 26-June | NIGERIA | 1-2 | ARGENTINA | St Petersburg |
| Moses 51 pen | Messi 14 Rojo 86 |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) CROATIA | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 9 |
| (Q) ARGENTINA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Nigeria | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Iceland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| GROUP E | ||||||
| ITV | 1pm | Sun 17-June | COSTA RICA | 0-1 | SERBIA | Samara |
| Kolarov 57 | ||||||
| ITV | 7pm | Sun 17-June | BRAZIL | 1-1 | SWITZERLAND | Rostov-on-Don |
| Coutinho 19 | Zuber 50 | |||||
| ITV | 1pm | Fri 22-June | BRAZIL | 2-0 | COSTA RICA | St Petersburg |
| Coutinho 90+1 Neymar 90+7 | ||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Fri 22-June | SERBIA | 1-2 | SWITZERLAND | Kaliningrad |
| Mitrovic 5 | Xhaka 52 Shaqiri 90 | |||||
| ITV | 7pm | Wed 27-June | SERBIA | 0-2 | BRAZIL | Moscow |
| Paulinho 36 Thiago Silva 68 | ||||||
| ITV | 7pm | Wed 27-June | SWITZERLAND | 2-2 | COSTA RICA | Nizhny Novgorod |
| Dzemail 31, Drmic 88 | Waston 56 Sommer 90+3 og |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) BRAZIL | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 7 |
| (Q) SWITZERLAND | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| Serbia | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Costa Rica | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| GROUP F | ||||||
| BBC | 4pm | Sun 17-June | GERMANY | 0-1 | MEXICO | Moscow |
| Lozano 35 | ||||||
| ITV | 1pm | Mon 18-June | SWEDEN | 1-0 | SOUTH KOREA | Nizhny Novgorod |
| Granqvist 65 pen | ||||||
| ITV | 4pm | Sat 23-June | SOUTH KOREA | 1-2 | MEXICO | Rostov-on-Don |
| Son Heung-Min 90+3 | Vela 26 pen Hernandez 65 | |||||
| ITV | 7pm | Sat 23-June | GERMANY | 2-1 | SWEDEN | Sochi |
| Reus 48, Kroos 90+5 | Toivonen 32 | |||||
| BBC | 3pm | Wed 27-June | SOUTH KOREA | 2-0 | GERMANY | Kazan |
| Kim Young-Gwon 90+2 Son Heung-Min 90+6 | ||||||
| BBC | 3pm | Wed 27-June | MEXICO | 0-3 | SWEDEN | Yekaterinburg |
| Augustinsson 50 Granqvist 62 pen Alvarez 74 og |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) SWEDEN | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| (Q) MEXICO | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| South Korea | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Germany | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| GROUP G | ||||||
| BBC | 4pm | Mon 18-June | BELGIUM | 3-0 | PANAMA | Sochi |
| Mertens 47, Lukaku 69, 75 | ||||||
| BBC | 7pm | Mon 18-June | TUNISIA | 1-2 | ENGLAND | Volgograd |
| Sassi 35 pen | Kane 11, 90+1 | |||||
| BBC | 1pm | Sat 23-June | BELGIUM | 5-2 | TUNISIA | Moscow |
| E Hazard 6 pen, 51 Lukaku 16, 40+3 Batshuayi 90 | Bronn 18 Khazri 90+3 | |||||
| BBC | 1pm | Sun 24-June | ENGLAND | 6-1 | PANAMA | Nizhny Novgorod |
| Stones 8, 40 Kane 22 pen, 45+1 pen, 62 Lingard 36 | Baloy 78 | |||||
| ITV | 7pm | Thu 28-June | ENGLAND | 0-1 | BELGIUM | Kaliningrad |
| Januzaj 51 | ||||||
| ITV | 7pm | Thu 28-June | PANAMA | 1-2 | TUNISIA | Saransk |
| Meriah 33 og | F Ben Youssef 51 Khazri 66 |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) BELGIUM | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 9 |
| (Q) ENGLAND | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 6 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 3 |
| Panama | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| GROUP H | ||||||
| BBC | 1pm | Tue 19-June | COLOMBIA | 1-2 | JAPAN | Saransk |
| Quintero 39 | Kagawa 6 pen, Osako 73 | |||||
| ITV | 4pm | Tue 19-June | POLAND | 1-2 | SENEGAL | Moscow |
| Krychowiak 86 | Cionek 37 og, Niang 60 | |||||
| BBC | 4pm | Sun 24-June | JAPAN | 2-2 | SENEGAL | Yekaterinburg |
| Inui 34, Honda 78 | Mane 11, Wague 71 | |||||
| ITV | 7pm | Sun 24-June | POLAND | 0-3 | COLOMBIA | Kazan |
| Mina 40, Falcao 70 Juan Cuadrado 75 | ||||||
| BBC | 3pm | Thu 28-June | JAPAN | 0-1 | POLAND | Volgograd |
| Bednarek 59 | ||||||
| BBC | 3pm | Thu 28-June | SENEGAL | 0-1 | COLOMBIA | Samara |
| Mina 74 |
| W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| (Q) COLOMBIA | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| (Q*) JAPAN | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Senegal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Poland | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
*Note: Japan [four yellow cards] qualified by virtue of holding a better fair play record than Senegal [six yellow cards]
SCORERS
5 Harry Kane (England)
4 Romelu Lukaku (Belgium), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
3 Denis Cheryshev (Russia), Diego Costa (Spain)
2 Mile Jedinak (Australia), Eden Hazard (Belgium), Philippe Coutinho (Brazil), Yerry Mina (Colombia), Luka Modric (Croatia), Mo Salah (Egypt), John Stones (England), Ahmed Musa (Nigeria), Artem Dzyuba (Russia), Son Heung-min (South Korea), Andreas Granqvist (Sweden), Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia), Luis Suarez (Uruguay)
1 Sergio Aguero (Argentina), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Marcus Rojo (Argentina), Michu Batshuayi (Belgium), Adnan Januzaj (Belgium), Dries Mertens (Belgium), Neymar (Brazil), Paulinho (Brazil), Thiago Silva (Brazil), Juan Cuadrado (Colombia), Radamel Falcao (Colombia), Juan Quintero (Colombia), Kendall Waston (Costa Rica), Milan Badelj (Croatia), Ivan Perisic (Croatia), Ivan Rakitic (Croatia), Ante Rebic (Croatia), Christian Eriken (Denmark), Yussuf Poulsen (Denmark), Jesse Lingard (England), Antoine Griezmann (France), Kylian Mbappe (France), Toni Kroos (Germany), Marco Reus (Germany), Gylfi Sigurdsson (Iceland), Alfreð Finnbogason (Iceland), Karim Ansarifard (Iran), Keisuke Honda (Japan), Takashi Inui (Japan), Shinji Kagawa (Japan), Yuya Osako (Japan), Javier Hernandez (Mexico), Hirving Lozano (Mexico), Carlos Vela (Mexico), Khalid Boutaib (Morocco), Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco), Victor Moses (Nigeria), Felipe Baloy (Panama), Jose Luis Rodriguez (Panama), Andre Carrillo (Peru), Paolo Guerrero (Peru), Jan Bednarek (Poland), Grzegorz Krychowiak (Poland), Ricardo Quaresma (Portugal), Yury Gazinsky (Russia), Aleksandr Golovin (Russia), Salem Al Dawsari (Saudi Arabia), Salman Al Faraj (Saudi Arabia), Sadio Mane (Senegal), M'Baye Niang (Senegal), Moussa Wague (Senegal), Aleksandar Kolarov (Serbia), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Serbia), Kim Young-Gwon (South Korea), Iago Aspas (Spain), Isco (Spain), Nacho (Spain), Ludwig Augustinsson (Sweden), Ola Toivonen (Sweden), Josip Drmic (Switzerland), Blerim Dzemail (Switzerland), Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland), Granit Xhaka (Switzerland), Steven Zuber (Switzerland), Fakhreddine Ben Youssef (Tunisia), Dylan Bronn (Tunisia), Ferjani Sassi (Tunisia), Edinson Cavani (Uruguay), Jose Gimenez (Uruguay)
9 own goals
Aziz Behich (Australia) v France
Aziz Bouhaddouz (Morocco) v Iran
Oghenekaro Etebo (Nigeria) v Croatia
Ahmed Fathy (Egypt) v Russia
Thiago Cionek (Poland) v Senegal
Denis Cheryshev (Russia) v Uruguay
Edson Alvarez (Mexico) v Sweden
Yann Sommer (Switzerland) v Costa Rica
Yassine Meriah (Tunisia) v Panama
RED CARDS
- Carlos Sanchez (Colombia) v Japan
- Jerome Boateng (Germany) v Sweden
- Igor Smolnikov (Russia) v Uruguay
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