World Cup Quarter-Finals Preview: Four Exciting Matches Await

The World Cup has already torn up its own script. Now comes the part where legacies are written in ink, not pencil.

Eight teams remain. Six from Europe, one from Africa, one from South America. Four games, four very different stories – and a quarter-final line-up that crackles with possibility.

France v Morocco – Atlanta Stadium, Thursday 21:00 BST

Champions of Africa against the aristocrats of Europe, but not the same tale as Qatar.

Morocco’s run to the last four in 2022 felt like a fairy tale. This version is harder, sharper, built on more than emotion. Against Canada last Saturday, the Africa Cup of Nations winners – title still officially “pending” while Senegal’s appeal over that stormy January final rumbles on – started only four players from the side beaten by France in that semi-final four years ago.

This is a new Morocco. Faster. Bolder. They play with a swagger that suits the American stage, and they will ask questions of France that no-one else has managed so far.

France, the 2022 runners-up, have evolved too. Only three of the XI who faced Morocco in Qatar began the win over Paraguay. William Saliba has grown into the defensive pillar Didier Deschamps long craved, while Michael Olise gives them a different kind of creativity between the lines – less predictable, more improvisational.

And still, at the centre of it all, Kylian Mbappe. The chase is personal now as well as collective. He is hunting Lionel Messi on two fronts: the Golden Boot at this tournament and the all-time World Cup scoring record. Every run, every shot, feels like another step in that duel.

History offers its own twist. Half of France’s World Cup defeats this century have come against African opposition – three out of six. Yet Morocco have never beaten them. France have won seven in a row, 11 of their past 12. Morocco arrive on a 34-game unbeaten streak of their own.

Something has to give.

Spain v Belgium – Los Angeles Stadium, Friday 20:00 BST

Attack against control. Chaos against calculation. Perfect for Los Angeles.

Belgium have finally cut loose. Thirteen goals already – only Argentina and France have more, with 14 – and the last three matches have turned into a goal rush against New Zealand, Senegal and USA. When they click, they overwhelm.

Romelu Lukaku no longer glides, but he still finishes. Three goals off the bench, one every 67 minutes, a reminder that penalty-box instincts age better than pace. Around him, Leandro Trossard has stitched things together with two goals and two assists, the Arsenal forward drifting into spaces defenders hate.

Now comes the real examination. Spain have not conceded a single goal at this World Cup. Extend that back to their final match in 2022 and it’s six consecutive clean sheets – the longest such run by any team in World Cup history.

The numbers behind that record are even more brutal. Across this tournament, Spain are allowing an expected goals against of just 0.3 per match, the lowest figure recorded since such data has been tracked. Teams barely create chances against them, never mind score.

Luis de la Fuente’s Spain know how to navigate knockout football. Under his watch, they have progressed from all six World Cup or European Championship knockout ties they have faced. This is their first World Cup quarter-final since the triumph in South Africa in 2010, but they carry themselves like a side that expects to be here.

Belgium must fight history as well as the press. Spain are unbeaten in their past 11 meetings with them – nine wins, two draws. The Belgians will cling to one memory: Mexico ’86, when they knocked Spain out on penalties in the quarter-finals.

Forty years on, they need that same defiance.

Norway v England – Miami Stadium, Saturday 22:00 BST

Miami gets two of the deadliest strikers on the planet under the floodlights.

Erling Haaland has treated this World Cup like his own personal shooting gallery. Seven goals in four games, two of them to dump five-time champions Brazil out in the last 16. He is brutal in his economy: 62 goals in 54 internationals, averaging one every 71 minutes. He has scored in 14 consecutive matches for Norway, piling up 27 goals in that run.

Everything about Norway’s campaign has been wild. They have scored and conceded in every game. They do not do control; they do jeopardy. Only West Germany in 1954 have ever reached a World Cup semi-final with that kind of record.

Waiting on the other side of the centre circle is Harry Kane, one behind Haaland in the Golden Boot race and in no mood to yield. His penalty against Mexico settled a classic in the last 16 and underlined why managers trust him when the pressure tightens.

At 32, now leading the line for Bayern Munich, Kane has just come off a staggering 2025-26 season: 73 goals for club and country, more than anyone else in European football. The form has travelled with him to North America. With 14 World Cup goals in total, he stands alone as England’s all-time leading scorer at the tournament.

England know this stage well. This is their 11th World Cup quarter-final, behind only Brazil and Germany on 14. The record at this point, though, is far less flattering: only three wins.

Norway, by contrast, are newcomers. Just their fourth World Cup, their first quarter-final at any major tournament. No scars. No baggage. Just Haaland, belief, and a willingness to trade punches.

One of these strikers will wake up a step from the final. The other will be left staring at a what-if.

Argentina v Switzerland – Kansas City Stadium, Sunday 02:00 BST

The champions keep surviving. They have not yet convinced.

Argentina arrive in Kansas City as clear favourites for the third knockout round in a row, but their path has been anything but serene. Cape Verde dragged them into extra time in the last 32. Egypt then pushed them to the brink, only for Argentina to conjure the latest comeback in World Cup history. Egypt walked away furious, talking of “injustice”. Argentina walked away still alive.

That has been the pattern: flawed, vulnerable, yet somehow still moving forward.

Murat Yakin’s Switzerland will not be easily shifted. They are awkward, disciplined, and quietly ambitious. This is their first World Cup quarter-final since 1954, yet they do not look or sound like tourists. They have their own spark in 20-year-old Johan Manzambi, a livewire presence in attack, though he missed the penalty shootout win over Colombia through injury.

They have waited more than half a century for a night like this. They do not plan to be overawed by an ageing Argentina.

Messi remains the axis of everything. Even his missteps make history. On Tuesday he became the first player to miss two penalties at a World Cup, an unwanted mark on a glittering record. Later in the same game, he restored the balance in typical fashion, scoring to move clear of Mbappe in the Golden Boot race with eight goals.

The margins are narrowing. The legs are heavier. The pressure grows.

Four quarter-finals. Four different paths to immortality. Who bends this sprawling World Cup to their will now?