With the World Cup in the round of 16, here’s a look at what’s next for the teams that made it out of the group stage.
No more ties, or tiebreakers. The World Cup is into the knockout stage, and every match will end with someone going home.
After six of the eight round-of-16 games, these quarterfinals are set: France vs. Uruguay, Russia vs. Croatia and Brazil vs. Belgium.
Here’s a look at what’s next:
England will carry high expectations into the last game of this stage on Tuesday against a talented Colombia team at Spartak Stadium after essentially choosing that matchup by fielding a squad of reserves in its last group game against Belgium. The earlier game at St. Petersburg features a Swedish side that won a tough group versus a Swiss team with issues in the back but enough talent up front to score against anyone. The winners play July 7 for the right to go to the semifinals
Here’s a quick look at the other round of 16 games:
On Saturday, two of the greatest players of the era followed each other out of the tournament. Lionel Messi and Argentina lost 4-3 to France, which got two goals from teenager Kylian Mbappe. Four hours later, Cristian Ronaldo and his European champion Portugal team lost 2-1 to Uruguay.
France and Uruguay were the first teams to reach the quarterfinals, and they’ll meet on July 6.
On Sunday, for the first time at a World Cup since 1986, two games were decided on penalty shootouts on the same day. The net result: Russia and Croatia will meet in a July 7 quarterfinals in Sochi.
Russia and Spain were tied 1-1 after extra time, and the Russians clinched the shootout 4-3 in Moscow. Andres Iniesta, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the 2010 World Cup, retired from international football after the match. Croatia and Denmark were tied 1-1 at the end of extra time. Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic made three saves in the shootout— equaling a World Cup record — as Croatia won 3-2 on penalties over the Danes.
On Monday, five-time champion Brazil beat Mexico 2-0 and Belgium left it to the last minute of stoppage time to clinch a 3-2 win over Japan.
It was the first time since West Germany rallied to beat England in extra time that a team has rallied from 2-0 down to win a knockout game at the World Cup. It was the first time since 1966, when Portugal beat North Korea, that a team has come back from 2-0 down to win a knockout match in normal time.
