Knockout rounds · Win or go home
Germany, gone. The Netherlands, gone. Cape Verde still standing. Three weeks into the biggest World Cup ever staged, the tournament has stopped being polite. FULL TIME is at every twist — written by fans, checked like journalism.
Read the latest Test your knowledgeThree draws, three points, no defeats — and now the World Cup debutants get Messi's Argentina.
Four matches, eight goals, none conceded. Now England come to the Azteca — and a nation dares to dream past the quarter-finals.
Critics called the round of 32 padding. Then Paraguay and Morocco turned it into a graveyard for European heavyweights.
48 teams, 104 matches, three nations, sixteen cities. The biggest tournament ever staged kicks off now.
22 June 1986. The Azteca. One man, one match, two goals — one infamous, one immortal.
The final is scheduled for 19 July 2026 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It will crown the champion of the first 48-team World Cup.
Forty-eight — up from thirty-two. The expanded format produces 104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the most in World Cup history.
Brazil, with five titles: 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. They remain the only nation to have appeared at every World Cup.
Miroslav Klose of Germany, with 16 goals across four tournaments from 2002 to 2014. He broke Ronaldo's record of 15 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Uruguay, in 1930. The hosts beat Argentina 4–2 in the final in Montevideo, at the purpose-built Estadio Centenario.
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