A World Cup that saw mighty Argentina fall to Saudi Arabia, Germany and Belgium go home in the group stage and an array of final match-day drama now has the sport’s traditional powers rounding into peak form.
The round of 16 saw the likes of Brazil, England, France and the Netherlands each comfortably roll in their last-16 matchups. Portugal silenced any doubters—and made a key change to the starting lineup—in a 6–1 thrashing of Switzerland. Argentina skated by Australia, while Croatia survived on penalties vs. Japan. But Morocco, the surprise underdog of the tournament that won Group F, continued taking Qatar by storm with a win over Spain in penalty kicks.
Heading into the home stretch of this tournament, we rank the eight teams remaining before the quarterfinals kick off on Friday.
