Forty of the original 48 nations have already packed their bags, and every co-host among them, leaving a final eight built around continental powerhouses and two nations writing brand-new chapters in their history. Between July 9 and July 11, France, Morocco, Spain, Belgium, Norway, England, Argentina and Switzerland will fight for four semifinal spots, with all four matches staged in the United States ahead of the tournament's July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
How the Bracket Breaks Down
One half of the draw sends France to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough to meet Morocco, while Spain and Belgium collide at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles; that pairing produces a semifinalist bound for what FIFA has designated "Dallas Stadium" — in reality AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington, Texas — on July 14, per ESPN's tournament schedule. The other half pairs Norway against England in Miami Gardens and Argentina against Switzerland in Kansas City, a winner-take-all route toward the second semifinal in Atlanta on July 15. Norway–England kicks off at 5 p.m. Eastern, while Argentina–Switzerland is set for 9 p.m. Eastern — the same moment local Kansas City clocks read 8 p.m. Central, which explains why some outlets list the kickoff differently depending on which time zone they're quoting.
Sportsbooks have sorted the field into fairly clear tiers. As of July 7 and 8, FanDuel odds relayed by Fox Sports had France as the shortest price to win the whole tournament, with Spain, Argentina and England bunched together as the next tier, and Norway, Switzerland, Belgium and Morocco all sitting as considerably longer shots. ESPN's betting desk reported France's price shortening substantially once the co-host United States was eliminated, a result bookmakers had feared as their biggest liability.
France vs. Morocco: Revenge or Repeat?
Thursday's opener revives one of the tournament's rawest storylines. France beat Morocco 2-0 in the 2022 semifinal in Qatar, ending the Atlas Lions' run as the first African and Arab nation to reach that stage, with Theo Hernández striking early and substitute Randal Kolo Muani sealing it soon after coming on, according to Sports Illustrated's head-to-head breakdown. Across six official meetings dating to a 1988 friendly, France has won four, with a single Morocco victory — a 1998 penalty shootout at the King Hassan II tournament following a 2-2 draw — and one match finishing level, a detail confirmed SI. Morocco's best answer on the scoreboard remains a 5-1 France win from 2000 and a 2-2 friendly draw in 2007; the sides have never otherwise crossed paths inside a World Cup.
Both teams arrive with genuine momentum. France has scored 14 goals against only two conceded through five matches, a differential Fox Sports says makes Les Bleus the tournament's most prolific attack and the outright favorite to advance. Morocco's own run has been complicated by fitness worries around Ismael Saibari, whose hamstring injury arrived barely a week after he agreed a big-money transfer to Bayern Munich; he had scored in each of Morocco's three group games before going off early against Canada, and his availability for Thursday remained uncertain days before kickoff. Even without him for large stretches, Morocco has cruised to a 3-0 win over co-host Canada and a penalty-shootout victory over the Netherlands to reach the quarterfinals for a second straight tournament.
Spain vs. Belgium: Colliding Unbeaten Runs
Friday's tie in Los Angeles brings together two of the form teams left in the draw. Belgium has gone 18 matches without defeat since March 2025, a stretch traced to a single loss under new coach Rudi Garcia, while Spain's streak reaches back much further — 35 games unbeaten since March 2024, which Fox Sports notes ties the longest run in the team's history. Spain has also yet to concede a goal at this World Cup; multiple outlets covering the Portugal match, including Al Jazeera, confirm that clean sheet now stretches to six consecutive matches, a new World Cup record. Belgium counters with an attacking boost of its own in Charles De Ketelaere, whose brace against the United States — both goals scored inside the first half — has made him, alongside Romelu Lukaku's two goals, one of Belgium's joint-leading scorers this summer.
The two countries have shared a World Cup pitch only twice, and Spain has never actually beaten Belgium in the competition itself: Belgium advanced on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the 1986 quarterfinals, then Spain won a 1990 group-stage meeting 2-1, a ledger confirmed by match records from TheSoccerWorldCups. Outside the tournament, Spain has dominated more recent history — seven meetings since 1986 shows Spain winning six with a single draw and no Belgian victories — while a this report traces Spain's unbeaten run against Belgium in all competitions back to a 1980 European Championship defeat. Friday marks the sides' first World Cup knockout meeting since that 1986 shootout, at the very same stage of the tournament.
Norway vs. England: A First-Ever Meeting on the Biggest Stage
Saturday's early kickoff in Miami Gardens carries unusual historical weight for Norway, appearing in a World Cup quarterfinal for the first time ever and only the fourth World Cup of its existence, following appearances in 1938, 1994 and 1998. Erling Haaland's brace eliminated five-time champions Brazil 2-1 in the round of 16, and the striker arrives at this quarterfinal having racked up 62 international goals in 54 caps for his country, a tally Fox Sports puts front and center ahead of his duel with England captain Harry Kane. England, in turn, is into a third consecutive World Cup quarterfinal, matching a feat it last pulled off between 1962 and 1970, after grinding past co-host Mexico 3-2 while playing more than half an hour with ten men following a red card to Jarell Quansah, a sequence detailed in ESPN's match report.
The two federations have met a dozen times since 1937, but Saturday is their first-ever encounter at a major tournament. England has won seven of those matches to Norway's two, with three draws, and the head-to-head history shows England winning the first four friendlies by a combined 20-2 scoreline. Norway's only victories arrived in World Cup qualifiers in 1981 and 1993, and the sides haven't met since England won a 2014 friendly on a Wayne Rooney penalty. Betting markets still lean toward England, but only modestly, a reflection of how far this Norway side has traveled.
Argentina vs. Switzerland: Messi's Latest Rescue Act
Saturday's late match in Kansas City reunites two sides from a tense 2014 knockout duel. Argentina beat Switzerland 1-0 in extra time that year, Ángel Di María converting in the 118th minute off a Messi assist, and it remains Argentina's only other competitive meeting with the Swiss beyond a 2-0 win at the 1966 World Cup group stage — meaning Argentina has never lost to Switzerland in a World Cup match.
Argentina arrives as defending champion but hardly untroubled: the team trailed Egypt 2-0 with roughly eleven minutes to play in the round of 16, then scored three times in the final stretch to win 3-2, a comeback ESPN's live coverage credits largely to Messi, who set up Cristian Romero's equalizer before scoring himself to level the match. At 39, Messi now leads the tournament's scoring with eight goals and has been directly involved in nine, a total that also includes his lone assist of the tournament, and Sky Sports' match report notes it was Enzo Fernández who eventually won it in stoppage time. Switzerland, meanwhile, needed penalties to eliminate Colombia after a scoreless draw and has reached a World Cup quarterfinal for the first time since 1954, a wait Fox Sports' quarterfinal odds preview frames as the Swiss side's deepest run since the Eisenhower era, though Argentina remains a heavy favorite on paper.
What This Final Eight Says About the Global Game
Beyond the individual matchups, this lineup marks a real shift in the sport's balance of power. All three co-hosts — the United States, Mexico and Canada — are out, each eliminated at the round of 16 at the earliest, a detail PBS NewsHour's coverage of Belgium's win over the United States underlines by noting every CONCACAF entrant has now been eliminated. Traditional powers have fallen alongside them: Brazil lost to Norway in the round of 16, Portugal was edged 1-0 by Spain on a stoppage-time Mikel Merino goal in the same round, and both Germany and the Netherlands went out on penalties in the round of 32, to Paraguay and Morocco respectively.
Morocco's presence in the final eight cements its status as more than a 2022 Cinderella story; reaching consecutive World Cup quarterfinals is a new milestone for an African nation, one The National frames as proof of sustained progress rather than a single golden generation. Norway's run is a genuine breakthrough for a side that hadn't reached a World Cup at all since 1998. Switzerland's trip to the last eight is its best showing in more than seven decades. Portugal's exit closed out Cristiano Ronaldo's international career by his own admission, with NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth noting he had said beforehand this would be his last World Cup, while Brazil's elimination arrived alongside Neymar's own announcement, made in tears at MetLife Stadium, that his international career was over, as Al Jazeera reported — a symbolic changing of the guard even as Messi, at 39, keeps Argentina's title defense alive.
With six of the eight remaining teams from Europe, and only Morocco and Argentina representing other confederations, this tournament's closing stretch looks more European than most pre-tournament forecasts anticipated. Whether that holds through the semifinals in Arlington and Atlanta, or whether Morocco and Argentina disrupt it again, will shape the final two weeks of the biggest World Cup ever played.
