MOSCOW — 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.
