After one month and 96 matches across 16 stadiums that sent 40 teams home, the 2026 World Cup finally reached the quarter-finals.
The longest and most inclusive edition yet of the global soccer tournament has come down to eight nations left standing from three continents. They include the current defending World Cup champions, some teams who were favored to go all the way before the tournament began, and a team that made it to this milestone for the first time in more than 70 years.
All three host nations failed to reach this point, leaving the 1998 French side the last team to win the World Cup on home soil for at least another four years.
Here’s a glimpse of what to expect:
July 9: France-Morocco
First up, Kylian Mbappe and France will face off against the Kingdom of Morocco.
Both teams reached this point four years ago, and both teams made it to the semi-finals with Les Bleus eventually going home as runners-up and the Atlas Lions coming in fourth to the surprise of most onlookers. This time, though, only one of them will make it to the semifinals.
French stars Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele will look to continue their individual race for the Golden Boot award, which is given to whoever scores the most goals in the tournament. Mbappe has seven goals thus far, while Dembele has four.
Meanwhile, Morocco’s Ismael Saibari will be looking to log more goals of his own after his team knocked out the first host nation, Canada, 3-0 in the Round of 16. Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou will be looking for his third clean sheet of the tournament. Of the nine African countries to make it out of the group stage, Morocco is the only team left standing.
Both teams remain unbeaten in this tournament, with France winning all of their games and Morocco winning all but their draw with Brazil.
France is considered a heavy favorite to win.
July 10: Spain-Belgium
After trumping Team USA 4-1 in Seattle, Belgium heads south down Interstate 5 to face Spain in Los Angeles.
This top-10 matchup puts the team that FIFA considered ninth-best in the world (Belgium) against a top-three contender who has yet to give up a single goal the entire tournament.
In fact, Belgium will be looking to cap the Rojas’s ongoing world record for the longest stretch at the World Cup without conceding a goal. They will be looking to goal-scoring pillars such as Romelu Lukaku and young talent such as Charles De Ketelaere to continue their momentum from the Round of 16 victory. De Ketelaere scored twice in that game.
Meanwhile, Spain is favored to win with the help of Mikel Oyarzabal, who is also in pursuit of the Golden Boot with four goals thus far, and goalkeeper Unai Simon, who will be looking for his record sixth clean sheet. The Rojas’s only blemish in the tournament thus far was the scoreless draw with Cape Verde in its opening match.
July 11: England-Norway
That Golden Boot will also be in play on July 11 as the latest battle of the North Sea over the course of more than a thousand years is transposed onto a soccer pitch in the middle of South Florida.
Harry Kane will lead his England squad against Erling Haaland and his fellow Vikings from Norway.
Haaland’s meteoric rise on the World Cup stage has been evident on the score sheet. In just his first-ever appearance in the tournament, he remains tied with Mbappe with seven goals. He earned the last two in a 2-1 upset victory over Brazil in the Round of 16.
Kane, meanwhile, has six goals. The star forward has delivered decisive strikes for the Three Lions, including the winning goal against the second host nation, Mexico, in Mexico City in the Round of 16. He also scored two late goals in the previous match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That game marked the first time since 1966 that England won a World Cup match in which they conceded the first goal.
England is currently favored.
July 11: Argentina-Switzerland
Argentina also punched its way to the quarter-finals when for the first time in decades, it won a World Cup game in which it conceded the first goals.
The defending World Cup champions found themselves trailing 2-0 against Egypt on July 7 after nearly 80 minutes of play. But with Lionel Messi at the lead, the Selección found its way back. Cristian Romero put his team on the board in the 79th minute, and Messi secured the equalizer less than five minutes later. Only two of the seven minutes of stoppage time were needed for Enzo Fernández to deliver the game-winning goal.
In the second half of a Saturday double-header, Argentina will face Switzerland, who make their first quarterfinal appearance since 1954. They also had a hard-fought Round of 16 battle against Colombia. Both teams held a 0-0 stalemate through full-time and extra time, ultimately leaving the game up to penalty kicks. Switzerland emerged victorious 4-3.
Messi goes into this match leading the race for what could be his first-ever Golden Boot award with eight goals thus far.
Argentina is favored to survive to the semi-finals, but only two teams have ever won back-to-back World Cups since the tournament’s inception in 1930.
The first team to win two in a row was Italy in 1934 and 1938. The second was Brazil, which secured the World Cup in 1958 and 1962.
The Road Ahead
Once the quarterfinals cut the eight survivors down to four, the semifinals will be held on July 14 and 15.
The winner of the France-Morocco match will take on the winner of Spain-Belgium in the first game, scheduled to be in Dallas at 3 p.m.
Then either England or Norway will face either Argentina or Switzerland for the second game in Atlanta, also at 3 p.m.
After that, the two semifinal losers will play a match for third place in Miami at 5 p.m. on July 18. Then the two winners will meet in the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium outside New York City at 3 p.m. on July 19.
