Costa Rica v Germany was a special fixture for a number of reasons. Amongst them, it was the first time ever that an all-female officiating team took charge of a men's World Cup game.

France's Stephanie Frappart was in charge of the match, joined by assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz Medina from Mexico.

Frappart, 38, has said that she having female referees will send out a positive message about women's rights in Qatar.

"We know there are some difficulties there for women," she said.

"But I think and I hope that this World Cup will help them."

Image source, Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Germany and Arsenal goalkeeping legend Jens Lehman had his say on their disastrous tournament, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning he was asked - what needs to change?

Lehmann said: "I think the challenge for the next years for coaches and players is to communicate better, to coach on the pitch.

"So you need to have coaches who can coach while the game is running and to coach actually their own players how to organise. Because at the end of the day it has nothing to do with formations whosoever when you concede goals.

"You just need to do something with the organisation, being compact, and these are the things that are being neglected."

Image source, Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

But Lehmann didn't save his criticism for the coaches alone, accusing the players of basic communication failures and being distracted by outside issues.

"The German team, unfortunately, they made a gesture before the first game when they muted their mouths in the team photo. And that's kind of a symbol for what they do... because they don't talk and talking is very important in coaching and on the pitch."

"There were some distractions about all the things going in Qatar, human rights and things like that. And the Germans right now they are hyper-critical because they think they always have to deal with others people's problems.

"We need to focus on the tournament, we need to focus performing really well, because there are millions of fans like myself, and we were expecting a little more than getting knocked for the second time in a row."

Jenny Hill
Berlin correspondent

Frustration and fury best sum up the mood in Germany this morning.

For a second time, the country which has long prided itself on its footballing prowess has crashed out of a World Cup early. "From world champion to problem child", declares one headline.

The sense of national humiliation is widespread, and commentators aren’t holding back - Germany, wrote one, has become the "football dwarf".

The post-mortem is in full swing, with focus on the role of the manager, Hansi Flick, and Oliver Bierhoff, the national team director of the national Football Association, both of whom have ruled out resignation.

A weak defence, some pundits conclude, has plagued the side for some time.

But, as Germany endures what one writer calls its day of football mourning, perhaps some will comfort themselves with the German expression "nach dem spiel ist vor dem spiel" ("after the game is before the game").

We're going to move into build-up for Friday's games and England's last-16 tie against Senegal on Sunday shortly.

But, before we do, a bit more reaction from last night...

Canada goalkeeper Milan Borjan had a night to forget on Thursday.

In the fourth minute of the match against Morocco, he came sprinting out his box, only to pass the ball straight to opposing midfielder Hakim Ziyech, who dinked the ball over him and into the net.

That experience obviously wasn't scarring enough to deter Borjan from having another go at playing the ball outside of his area later on in the match.

With minutes ticking down in the second half and Canada chasing the game 2-1 down, the 35-year-old went up for a corner, swung a cross into the box and then missed the ball with an ill-timed kick as Morocco delivered their own counter-attack.

But for the defensive work of his left-back, Alphonso Davies, the whole affair could have ended in further blushes for the keeper.

Image source, Getty Images

With Canada exiting the tournament at the group stage, that means we also say goodbye to Durham-born head coach John Herdman, who said the Canadians showed great spirit in a group containing some of the best teams in the world.

He said: "I think there's been some really big moments. I think as a football country we can be definitely proud of the performances. The external world are talking strongly about Canada. I think we showed up in every game.

"This is the first time we've been here in 36 years. We're playing Croatians and Belgians and we're competing. We always said the world level is the next level, and I don't think we were far off. Two inches from getting our first result.

"We've got to take a deep breath and enjoy what we've experienced here. We've asked the hard questions because that's part of the growth as we move through to 2026, but celebrate what we achieved here."

Morocco made history on Thursday, edging Canada to finish top of Group F and progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time in 36 years.

After the match, the Atlas Lions players celebrated by rubbing the bald head of manager, Walid Regragui. Is that a good luck ritual? Whatever works hey...

Shamoon Hafez
BBC Sport at Al Thumama Stadium

Morocco ended 36 years of World Cup hurt by progressing to the knockout stage - then set their sights on going all the way.

Walid Regragui's men edged past Canada 2-1 to finish top of Group F, the first African team to achieve the feat since the brilliant Nigeria side from 1998.

The Atlas Lions were unbeaten in their three games, with a goalless opening draw against Croatia - who finished second - followed up by one of the shocks of the tournament as they beat Belgium.

In the post-match news conference, Regragui and man of the match Achraf Hakimi were applauded into the room by journalists from their country.

But it was a question from a Libyan journalist which sent chuckles around the room and one which Regragui did not shy away from answering.

"Do you think you are likely to win the World Cup?" he asked.

Regragui looked at Hakimi and smiled before replying: "We set ourselves an objective to give everything we have and get out of the group stages.

"After that, why not? Aim for the sky. We need to change our mentality and we will be a difficult team to beat.

"Why not dream about winning that trophy? As African teams we need to set this objective."

Read more.

Manchester City defender John Stones will be the England player speaking to the media today.

We'll bring you all of that from 13:30 GMT.

When you reach the last 16 of a major tournament for the first time since 1986 it's definitely a time to celebrate and Morocco head coach Walid Regragui promised there was still more to come from his team after they topped Group F.

"When you do have this opportunity to get into history, to make history, you remember it," said Regragui. "And, honestly, today, first half, I think it was one of the best performances that we have had in a long time.

"We didn't come just to play or to say 'oh, we almost got close'. Of course we want to play our own game. Our first half, the way we played, we will duplicate it. But this is not the time for this. We need to get the results and do as all European or South American teams do, Argentina, France. We need to emulate them.

"We needed to duplicate the play of European teams with our own values, so we needed to marry and mix the two. We need to actually, in the future, have the rigorous, tactical approach with the European style with our own identity. And, if we did this, we would win."

Image source, Getty Images

Croatia head coach Zlatko Dalic was happy his side reached the knockout stages of the tournament but felt also felt surprised by Belgium's performance.

"I certainly expected a difficult match against a great team Belgium cannot play three matches in a row in a very bad manner and this was a decisive match," he said.

"But Croatia were great, especially in the first hour. We had a clear penalty but VAR ruled against us. It is to be expected that a team such as Belgium would have certain chances and I must be honest and say that we were also lucky, they didn't take their chances in the end."

Dalic, who said friend Roberto Martinez would be a big loss to Belgian football, added: "It was a great match, but very difficult match to watch, to lead and it was difficult to play, but this is football."

More from Roberto Martinez now and when asked if he was sorry to have bowed out on such an underwhelming group-stage performance, he reflected on his journey with Belgium since his appointment in 2016.

He said: "I never look at it that way. I'm a person who likes to build things. I've been six years with the national team. I arrived with a clear job of qualifying for the World Cup and you get so engaged with the project and the people behind the players.

"And then we finished with a bronze medal (at Russia 2018) and it felt that we had to give it another go and it's been a real joy. We've been able to build a real legacy, and I know a lot of people say you can only build legacy by winning a major tournament, but I see it in a different way.

"I'm so proud of these players."

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

Belgian journalist Kristof Terreur, speaking on BBC 5 Live Breakfast: "I think the new manager has to come in and start basically from scratch with just a few of the older guys to take the new generation by the hand. It will need time, I don't think we'll be at the same level for the next five or six years.

"Romeo Lavia of Southampton and Amadou Onana of Everton, these are the new guys we are hoping for but they will only be ready in four, five, six years' time. You will have to have the luck we've had where a brilliant defence and brilliant attack all come together at the same time like we had in 2018. But we missed our chance."

Image source, Le Soir

There is a lot of soul-searching and a fair bit of mourning on the Belgian front pages today.

Daily Le Soir says, external that "there is great disappointment" and that the Belgian football union doesn't currently have a plan for the post-Martinez era.

But it also thanks the team for having taken Belgium out of a football rut, although it admits that the spirit it went to Qatar with was completely different from that of 2018. "Getting booted out of the group stages was undignified," it says.

L'Echo agrees, external, saying that Belgium were "ingloriously turfed out".

"Qatar marks a huge turning point for Belgian football," La Libre says, external, adding that between Roberto Martinez's departure and the team's failure to get through the group stages, "it's beginning to look a lot like the end of the golden generation - even though many old timers want to stay on until 2024."

And, perhaps most poignantly, the paper also quotes Michel Batshuayi as saying that following the match "many players cried".

Where did it all go wrong for Belgium?

BBC pundits Alan Shearer, Micah Richards and Didier Drogba debate.

It was a very disappointing World Cup campaign for Belgium's 'Golden Generation' and following the news he had ended his tenure as head coach of the national side, Roberto Martinez assessed what went wrong in Qatar.

"I think it's very clear. You come to the World Cup and you have to play three games and we only played one," said the Spaniard.

"The first games we were fearful, not the team that we are. We listened to the outside noise, we were feeling the responsibility. We played thinking if we lose a game we could be out and that's what cost us.

"Today was a performance and I felt we were the better team. We created better chances. Croatia are a great side and I felt today, had we gone through, you would have seen the real Belgium."

Jurgen Klinsmann
Former Germany head coach

Yeah, it's highly frustrating for Romelu, who I'm big fan of - I'm an Inter Milan fan. When you go into a World Cup, everything needs to happen in a positive way. You need to have a hungry squad, you need to have support from all over, especially from your home crowd, from your home people, from your media, you need to have them physically prepared to the extreme, to perfection, almost, no injuries, and all those things need to be in place in order to go far in a World Cup.

If these things are out of balance, if it's injuries, or lack of preparation, or lack of fitness, or lack of mental preparation for the tournament, which is the first tournament ever in the Middle East, all these things matter. Because that unbalances the overall energy within a team structure. And if it's unbalanced, then you risk going home early. And that's what happened to Germany and what happened to Belgium and what happened to Denmark. And I'm sure that they had other plans, a couple of weeks ago.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Getty Images

Belgian journalist Kristof Terreur, speaking on BBC 5 Live Breakfast: "We were basically prepared for this, the first two games gave us big warning signs. This Belgian team has not been good.

"We were unlucky yesterday, Romelu Lukaku had those four big chances but he just was not fit. I see he has been made the easy scapegoat everywhere but he was just not fit. A sharp Lukaku would have scored one of those chances but this is the end of the golden generation, in a bad way.

"The Belgian federation were open to extending Roberto Martinez's deal as he is also the technical director but I don't know if he has opportunities anywhere else. I think he has taken the decision during the tournament when some things were falling apart.

"When you saw him hugging all the players at the end, you knew it was over. I think even the Belgian federation were taken by surprised when he announced it in the press conference.

"There are a few Belgian managers who are available but I always wonder, you need to get a manager who can inspire this generation. They've worked under Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, big managers so if someone comes in who has only worked at a lower level, it's tough.

"But budget-wise we're struggling to get a big manager. In 2016, the job was trying to take the golden generation to glory, now it is the end of a cycle and it's a harder job."

Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku was so angry with himself and his team-mates that he punched the side of the dugout after their draw against Croatia saw them eliminated.

The on-loan Inter Milan striker missed four big chances in the second half, and it left us questioning whether Belgium's "golden generation" had blown their opportunity.

Emma Sanders has attempted to answer that question.