Oh, what a night!
The World Cup 2026 exploded into life overnight, local time here in the UK, as two epic matches saw two American giants crash out of the tournament as Norway beat Brazil before England saw off hosts Mexico in a five-goal thriller, a match which had enough World Cup 2026 highlights to fill a week of action.
The four top ranked teams, according to FIFA, are still in the competition, France, Argentina, Spain and England are on course to make the semi-finals and there is a case for backing any one of the four to lift the title. At the time of writing the World Cup 2026 betting odds pitch Didier Deschamps Bleus as the favourites, but Argentina’s game with Egypt is likely to change all that should La Albiceleste beat the Pharaohs as expected.
Les Bleus and the Three Lions are already through to the final eight, while Spain also have a Round of 16 match to navigate, a clash with their nearest neighbours Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo and all, and should the European Selecao come out on top of that game then they too will fancy their chances. And we can’t rule out the likes of Morocco, semi-finalists four years ago and now ranked sixth in the world, or Belgium, or even the remaining hosts the United States of America.
But I’m still fairly convinced it will be one of the big four. I backed Argentina and Spain from the off and I think La Roja will have too much for Portugal while La Albiceleste should see off Egypt. But one of the upcoming quarter finals, France versus Morocco is a mouth-watering prospect. Les Bleus laboured to beat Paraguay 1-0 thanks to a Kylian Mbappe penalty while the Atlas Lions repelled all that Canada could throw at them before clinically dispatching the co hosts 3-0.
So back to Thomas Tuchel’s England.
This SBOTOP writer has matchsticks in his eyes as I write today, having gone to bed at midnight UK time after watching Erling Haaland put Brazil to the sword. So, I admit I didn’t plan to stay up to watch the England game, but when our cat came in to demand an early breakfast at 2:30 AM I thought I’d take a look at the telly… and could hardly believe what I saw. At that point the Three Lions were 2-1 ahead thanks to a Jude Bellingham double and were hanging on for half time… so I put the kettle on and settled in for a nervy second half, including 12 minutes of stoppage time.
By 4:15 I’d sent and received countless text messages and it’s hard to do justice to one of the most dramatic World Cup matches of all time. Minutes into the second half England full back Jarrel Quansah was red carded for a horror tackle, and that as the Three Lions had been probing for a third. Their two-goal cushion was restored when Anthony Gordon was felled by the Mexico keeper and Harry Kane converted the penalty, but then England were pegged back again when VAR helped the referee to award El Tri a spot-kick which Raul Jimenez slotted home.
It was then backs to the wall for the Lions and they fought bravely in the face of a passionate 80,000 crowd at the Azteca Stadium and coping with the altitude of 2,200 metres, to beat a team which had not conceded a goal up until now.
Exhausted England fans are saying this is the best performance they have seen from their team since their World Cup triumph way back in 1966. Will the Three Lions finally end 60 years of hurt?
Route to the final
If the reigning champions beat Egypt, they will meet the winners of Colombia and Switzerland in their quarter final, and no match is a walk in the park at this stage. And then on that side of the draw should the matches go with the rankings then it will be an Argentina versus England semi-final, assuming the Three Lions beat Norway, and that fixture has plenty of history.
On the other side of the draw the winners of the Spain versus Portugal game will play either the USA or Belgium in the quarter final, with a semi against either France or Morocco. The rankings say we will have two incredible semi-finals to watch before we see a repeat of the 2022 France against Argentina final. But there will be twists and turns to come and whether you are a fan of France, Argentina, Spain or England…it’s time to dare to dream.
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