ANS : (3) 7
In First stage every team will play 7 matches in their group(8 teams).
for guaranteed entry to next stage it must be in top 4 positions. and as given in question a result of a match is never tie
8 teams are numbered as : 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
lets assume a team wins every matched played against a team whose no. is greater than that:
i.e.: team 1 wins against every other team and scores 7 points.
team 2 wins against every other team(except 1) and scores 6 points
team 3 wins against every other team(except 1,2) and scores 5
team 4 wins against every other team(except 1,2,3) and scores 4