The Netherlands won very convincingly on Saturday evening their first match of this World Cup, with a score of 5-1 against Sweden and is very close to qualifying for the knockout stages of this final tournament.
A final tournament with 48 teams instead of 32, which means we will have an extra knockout stage compared to before, namely the Round of 16. And the top two teams from groups C and F will face each other in the next stage, which means we might witness a colossal duel, Brazil vs the Netherlands.
And this potential duel could spark a major controversy. Because the Netherlands know what they need to do at this moment to avoid this situation, of playing against the former world champions, last time in 2002.
The Dutch will know before their last group match, the one against Tunisia, what result they would need to choose their future opponent. In case Selecao finishes 2nd in group C, the Netherlands could choose to finish in the same position in their group, thus losing to the Tunisians, in order to play in the Round of 16 against the 1st place team from group C, likely occupied in this context by Morocco, who finished 4th four years ago in the World Cup in Qatar.
Either way, it is very likely that Ronald Koeman will rest several starters for the match against the Africans, already eliminated from any qualification calculations.
It is very probable that this situation will not be a singular one in the final stage of the group phase, as other scenarios may arise where various teams choose their future opponent in one way or another for the Round of 16.