The World Cup began as a sprawl — 48 teams, three host nations, heat, distance, noise and the promise that football’s centre of gravity might tilt somewhere unexpected.

Two knockout rounds later, Europe has placed six teams in the quarterfinals, with Argentina and Morocco the only survivors from outside the continent.

European nations — Spain in 2010 and Germany in Brazil four years later — have won the trophy only twice outside Europe, but with France, Spain, England, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland making up three-quarters of the last eight, the chances of the continent adding to that list now feel high.

This is the most European quarterfinal line-up outside Europe since 1994. The round of 16 also ended in tears for Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, while the three host nations disappeared one by one.

The eight teams, though, have taken very different paths to get here. Some arrived through control, some through chaos, and others through sheer stubbornness.

Argentina’s route has been the least serene and perhaps, for that reason, the most revealing. The defending champion had to keep answering uncomfortable questions. Cape Verde dragged it deep in their round of 32 clash and Egypt then had it staring at elimination in Atlanta before Lionel Messi and company overturned a two-goal deficit in the final stretch to win 3-2.

It has not always looked orderly, but Argentina has looked resilient. Messi’s goals continue to shape the campaign, but for Lionel Scaloni, the greater comfort will come from the fact that his team has already lived through the sort of disorder that often ends World Cups.

“We made our people suffer even though we didn’t play a bad game,” Scaloni said after the win over Egypt. “We would be out if we didn’t fight.”

France, too, has been left with bruises. It swatted Sweden aside in the round of 32, but Paraguay turned the last-16 tie into a scrap, defending deep, slowing the game and forcing Didier Deschamps’ side to settle for a narrow win through Kylian Mbappe’s late penalty.

Yet France still looks the deepest squad left in the competition, with Mbappe’s seven goals giving it the tournament’s sharpest edge and Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola and Michael Olise all growing in stature.

England’s quarterfinal place was earned in the most difficult setting of the lot. It’s 3-2 win over Mexico at the Azteca was a test of altitude, noise and a wall of home hostility. England was reduced to 10 men and still survived.

Norway, its next opponent, authored one of the shocks of the tournament by knocking Brazil out, with Erling Haaland scoring twice in a 2-1 win. Under Stale Solbakken, Norway can hurt teams both in transition and with the ball, and England’s defenders now face the most obvious individual duel of the round — containing Haaland without losing control of the spaces around him.

Belgium and Switzerland have reached the last eight by mastering pressure in very different ways. Belgium was too calm and too clinical for the United States, winning 4-1 despite the noise around Folarin Balogun’s controversial reinstatement and the weight of a home crowd.

Switzerland, meanwhile, held its nerve better than Colombia in a goalless last-16 tie before prevailing on penalties to reach a first World Cup quarterfinal in 72 years.

Spain, meanwhile, still has not conceded a goal and removed Portugal with a cold efficiency that looks ominous.

The quarterfinal line-up now offers four very different tests. France against Morocco in Boston pits the tournament’s deepest squad against its most defiant underdog. Spain against Belgium in California feels like a contest between a side that monopolises the ball and one that can cut through space quickly.

England’s match against Norway in Miami may hinge on whether England can contain Haaland while still imposing its own rhythm. Argentina against Switzerland offers Messi another knockout maze against a side that rarely loses its shape or its calm.

The quarterfinals are evidence of where this World Cup has drifted. What began as a sprawling global carnival has tightened into a bracket dominated by Europe, with Argentina and Morocco left to resist the pull.

Published – July 08, 2026 08:50 pm IST

It is difficult to be a Brazilian footballer. It is more difficult to be a talented Brazilian footballer.

After the legendary Pele fired the South American nation to three World Cup triumphs in four editions (from 1958 to 1970), playing a leading role in at least two of those, every potentially great player who wears the Selecao shirt has been asked just one existential question — can you win the World Cup?

Romario in 1994 and Ronaldo in 2002 answered this emphatically, leading Brazil to its fourth and fifth titles respectively. Ronaldinho (in 2006) and Kaka (in 2006 and 2010) were put through the wringer, but could not add to the collection of World Cup trophies.

King in Waiting

From then on, the burden of resurrecting Brazil has been Neymar’s. Ever since he broke out as a prodigious 17-year-old at Santos and captured the imagination of his country, he has been Brazil’s ‘King in Waiting’.

There were four trophy-filled seasons at Barcelona, and then the record €222 million move to Paris Saint-Germain that liberated him from Lionel Messi’s colossal shadow at the Catalan giant.

But circumstances back in Brazil have been such that Neymar is yet to be coronated. In the time since that magical night in Japan in 2002, when Ronaldo buried the ghosts of the 1998 final loss to France by leading his side to a 2-0 win over Germany, Brazil has reached just one semifinal — at home in 2014.

That was the first of Neymar’s three appearances at the quadrennial extravaganza. He played admirably until the quarterfinals but a lower-back injury ended his tournament, and he watched helplessly on television the 7-1 humiliation that eventual champion Germany dished out.

In 2018, Belgium’s golden generation proved too good for Brazil as it crashed out in the quarters. In the 2022 last-eight clash versus Croatia, Neymar started and finished a brilliant move from midfield to put Brazil ahead in extra-time, only for his teammates to exhibit a severe lack of game awareness and ultimately lose on penalties.

For the maverick footballer, who is now 34, the North American sojourn will in all probability be the last chance saloon — a fourth attempt at claiming the elusive title.

Neymar, however, has to come to terms with the altered reality of him no longer being the leading man. Zinedine Zidane was also 34 when he led France to the final in 2006. Messi is 38 and Cristiano Ronaldo 41, and both are still synonymous with their outfits.

Neymar, though, is no longer central to his country’s identity. He is still Brazil’s biggest star, scorer of a record 79 goals (two more than Pele), but is neither the fulcrum nor the conductor who was once at the centre of every signature move on the field.

In fact, there was a real danger of Carlo Ancelotti — the first foreign coach in Brazil’s history, brought in to instil a culture of collectivism and tactical discipline — side-stepping him altogether, for Neymar had featured in just four fixtures after the 2022 World Cup.

His last outing for the national team was in October 2023, a World Cup qualification tie against Uruguay during which he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee and was out of action for a year.

He made a comeback in October 2024, only to injure his hamstring and spend more time out. Al Hilal, the Saudi Arabian club he joined in August 2023, terminated his contract in January 2025, and Neymar returned to Santos.

Flashes of his old self

The spell at his boyhood club has been mixed, with only flashes of his old self visible. There have been multiple spells on the sidelines; in 2026, he has only competed in eight matches. Leading into the World Cup he has again been waylaid by a calf injury.

The question now is how much of the old Neymar remains and what facets Ancelotti can tap into. At his pomp, Neymar was a flamboyant footballer and a glorious combination of pace, precision and trickery.

His close control and dribbling skills were such that the ball appeared glued to his feet, and such was the velocity he could gather in his first three-four steps that most opponents struggled to keep up.

Now that he is well into the third decade of his life, speed is no longer his ally. He is not as sharp as before. But set-piece delivery is still part of his muscle memory.

Considering that he would have had more rest than his Europe-based teammates, he can be a real threat if called upon to play short cameos, especially at the business end.

Neymar’s popularity among his peers was also a factor in his selection. For long, Ancelotti maintained that he would only pick those who were fully fit. But here, there appears to be an ever-so-slight departure as Ancelotti himself pointed to the “affection the group has for him [Neymar]” and how he can help “create a better atmosphere”.

The Italian, who has coached high-profile clubs such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, is among the best man-managers around and known to prioritise harmonious dressing rooms.

Pragmatic in his approach, Ancelotti has mostly shaped tactics according to the personnel at hand. At the same time, he has not allowed individual egos to disturb the shared ethos of his teams. “He has the same role, the same obligation as the other 25,” he said about Neymar. “He might play; he might not; he might be on the bench and come on.”

In South America, footballers cater to heightened demands. With the best players from the continent almost always leaving for greener pastures in Europe, there is an expectation from the fans for them to do well in national colours.

Messi might have had one of the greatest careers at Barcelona, but the whole of the Argentine population fully warmed up to him only in the aftermath of the 2022 success in Qatar.

It has been no different for Neymar. He helped Brazil win the 2013 Confederations Cup and clinch its first Olympic gold in football at Rio 2016. Both were at home but they still did not endear him to the public completely.

Failure and scrutiny

With every failure at the World Cup and Copa America, the scrutiny grew. Minor acts of petulance were overblown; every breath was analysed; every step was scrutinised; something as simple as a haircut was also not spared. In the battle of perception, he mostly lost.

“Those who have been with me through it all know that it was difficult, it was hard,” Neymar said about his latest selection. “But after hearing my name on the list, [it felt like] all the sacrifices and all the effort was worth it. We’re in this together as Brazil heads for a sixth World Cup title.”

The big question is: can a Brazilian ensemble deliver what a solo Neymar couldn’t?

After presiding over PSG’s successful Champions League title defence, Luis Enrique put his name up in lights in the hall of fame for football’s greatest-ever managers.

Having previously guided Barcelona to Champions League glory in 2014-15, the Spaniard secured his third European Cup triumph as a coach. He joined an elite group of managers with three or more European Cup titles, alongside Carlo Ancelotti, who won a record five, and Bob Paisley, Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola, who have each lifted the trophy three times.

Getting one over Guardiola

By going back to back, Enrique achieved what even his good friend Guardiola — who has a case for being considered the greatest ever — could not. And he did it in some style, with his PSG team being feted for its silky interplay and bewildering movement.

Enrique’s insistence on high-intensity, high-pressure football with electrifying forwards who dribble through defences has created a rare blend — arguably even improving on Guardiola’s iconic Barcelona side which won the Champions League twice. He has expanded on the possession-based ideas of Spain’s best teams, adding risk-taking and transitional threat.

Enrique’s PSG plays structured positional football, typically a 3-1-6 in possession. But there is fluidity within this formation — it’s not the same players in the same positions at all times. The side can pull apart most defences with its clever positional interchanges.

While PSG couldn’t break Arsenal down in the final, which went to penalties, it still created several headaches for the English champion, which Enrique said was the best team in the world out of possession. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said after the game that his plan wasn’t to have just 25% of the ball, but PSG’s dominance had precipitated the situation.

“It’s not a plan to play in certain scenarios when you don’t have the ball but they force you to do that,” Arteta, who admitted to being inspired by Enrique and PSG, said. “What they are able to do with the ball, individual actions, I haven’t seen it [before]. And so even more praise to them.”

In many ways Enrique is the defining figure of this PSG project, after the megastars, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe, departed. As Arteta said, “His fingerprints are all over this team.” Enrique arrived in Paris in 2023 promising a cultural shift rather than instant glamour. The Spaniard wanted a team in which collective sacrifice outweighed individual status, where the biggest names defended, pressed and suffered together. It’s fair to say he has succeeded.

After Mbappe left in 2024, Lucho, as he is nicknamed, said his team would become even stronger. “Having a player who moved wherever he wanted meant there were parts of the game I couldn’t control… next year, I’ll control everything. Everything,” he said. And he did.

The club still invested heavily in players, but players tailored to their manager’s plans, willing to run endlessly for the collective, and keep egos in check. “I arrived at the club thinking, ‘My objective is to make history,’ and we have indeed made history,” Enrique said. “We want to keep writing the story because we believe there’s still more there for us to achieve.”

Trophy-winning dynasty

Enrique has won 12 trophies, including three Ligue 1 titles, during his time at PSG. It is clear, from inside and outside, the effect the Asturian has had on a club built in his image, capable of creating a modern football dynasty. But while there is no doubt about Enrique’s quality, the question of his legacy, specifically the PSG chapter, is less straightforward.

The French team, built with Qatari riches, continues to face questions about ‘sportswashing’, which global campaigning network Greenpeace defines as “the act of sponsoring a sports team or event in order to distract from bad practices elsewhere. This tactic is often used by companies and governments with poor environmental or human rights records, exploiting people’s love of sports to ‘wash’ their image clean”.

Qatar Sports Investments acquired a controlling stake in PSG in 2011, just under a year after Qatar was named host for the 2022 World Cup. Critics saw both moves as a means to “mute criticism of an autocratic regime”, to take attention away from its “appalling treatment of migrant workers”, “suppression of human rights”, and “imprisonment of whistleblower Abdullah Ibhais”.

Critics also cite the financial imbalance enjoyed by state-owned teams such as PSG, Manchester City and Newcastle, arguing that it undermines fair competition. They point to the influence of PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi, the chairman of both European Football Clubs (EFC) and broadcasting company beIN, on the administration of European club football. This, they say, is the “the deeper effect of state money”.

The questions and criticism have reduced with PSG’s success on the biggest stage — critics contend that this is precisely the point of ‘sportswashing’.

Enrique’s tenure at PSG — much like Guardiola’s at City, which was marked by incredible trophy success but marred by 115 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations — will be accompanied by a knotty question: Can legacy be separated from the context of the circumstances in which it is built?

Fans of Enrique will hope that the answer doesn’t define him entirely. The 56-year-old has enriched the game with his progressive ideas of play, extending the limits of modern tactical thinking. While mastering his craft, he has endured a great personal tragedy and borne the loss of his young daughter with resilience and grace. Some will also highlight the fact that other managers have enjoyed Enrique’s resources at PSG but failed to produce the results he has.

Target three-peat

For his part, Enrique isn’t overly concerned about his legacy, at least publicly. After the final, he said he was “not interested” in whether he was becoming a legend or not. His next target is the Champions League three-peat. “The first one was incredible, but more than anything we had that desire to get the second,” he told broadcaster M6. “I love this club so much, and it’s not over! We’ve got the second, we’ll keep working and go get the third.”

Record 15-time winner Real Madrid won the Champions League three times (2016-2018). Before that, the last teams to complete a hat-trick were Bayern Munich and Ajax in the 1970s. Real also won it five years running, back at the competition’s inception. “We can talk about the back-to-back-to-back,” said Enrique. “We can talk about these types of objectives, our club is worthy of it, as are our supporters. We do need new players to refresh certain positions, but we’ve been champions of Europe for two years… piano piano [slowly, slowly].”