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Teams reaching the final play 7 games now. This would up that number to 8. But the current tournament gets played in about 32 days (Qatar 2022 was condensed because it was in November/December) and this would likely have to stretch out to about 39 days. So it's not a significant add to the wear and tear on these players, as if they're not used to playing with that kind of frequency during their regular club seasons. And yes, goal differential will absolutely come into play during the group stage since they'll need that to break ties for 3rd place in groups. We last saw that in the `94 World Cup when they were last at 24 teams. Amazing to think that the following World Cup in North America will be literally double the number of teams