Days of 'total predictability' over at Women's World Cup, says former USA coach Jill Ellis

Double World Cup-winning coach Jill Ellis confesses even she is blown away by the utter unpredictability of the 2023 tournament, which has already seen six top-20 sides bow out at the group stage.

The most shocking of those upsets came on Thursday night, when world number two Germany were dumped from Group H after never failing to reach the quarter-finals in eight previous tournaments.

Counter to the disappointed faces of the two-time champions were those of group rivals and debutants Morocco who, in a viral clip, huddled around a phone on the pitch before erupting in elation after learning their world number 72 side had made it to the knockouts.

"It's been a doozy so far," said Ellis, who guided the USA to back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019 and now heads the tournament's technical study group.

"I think we all feel this. Gone are the days of total predictability. Progress sits very clearly at the core, and certainly the competitiveness can be felt [with] giants in the game getting knocked out, we see debutants advance to the next round, which I think lends itself to this being just one of the most unpredictable and arguably exciting World Cups we've seen to date.

"If I'm candid, I really am surprised. I think when you suddenly see a Germany or a Brazil get knocked out of a World Cup in group stage. I don't think any of us could have predicted that. I'm excited by the development, of course, for sure. But I think I was thinking that one more iteration of the World Cup before we started to see even more parity that we're starting to see right now."

Olympic champions Canada (seventh) and Brazil (eighth) were the other two top-10 sides to be sent packing after the group stage, joining China (14th), Italy (16th) and South Korea