From heartbreak to the final four: everything that's happened since Portugal went home
I'll be honest with you. After Merino's 91st-minute goal in Dallas knocked us out, I wasn't sure I even wanted to watch the rest of this World Cup. That's the thing about supporting a team — when they go out, the tournament loses its colour for a while. The games become just games. You've got no dog in the fight.
But I kept watching. Of course I kept watching. Because I love football more than I love any one team, and because this World Cup has been so relentlessly, gloriously chaotic that looking away was never really an option. And you know what? The two weeks since Portugal's elimination have delivered some of the best football of the entire tournament.
So here's everything that's happened since. All three co-hosts gone. Haaland's fairytale ended. A defending champion still standing, somehow. And a final four that nobody could have predicted with any confidence three weeks ago.
The Round of 16: the co-hosts all fell
The most striking thing about the last 16 is that it wiped out every single host nation. All three. FIFA must have been in tears.
Morocco 3-0 Canada. Comfortable. The Africa Cup of Nations champions were simply too good, and Canada's brilliant tournament — the 6-0 win over Qatar, the group-stage energy — ended with a whimper in Houston.
Belgium 4-1 USA. Brutal. The last remaining co-host, and Belgium absolutely thrashed them in Seattle. After all that home support, all that hope, the USA's tournament ended in a hammering.
England 3-2 Mexico. And this — THIS — was one of the games of the tournament. Played at the Azteca in front of 80,824 people, at altitude, with an hour-long weather delay thrown in for good measure. Jude Bellingham scored twice in 98 seconds to put England 2-1 up. Then Jarell Quansah got sent off in the 54th minute and England had to survive more than 40 minutes with ten men in the most hostile stadium in world football. Kane made it 3-1 from the spot, Raúl Jiménez pulled one back with a penalty of his own, and Mexico threw everything at them in a grandstand finish. England held on. They became the first team ever to beat Mexico in a World Cup at the Azteca — only the third team to win there in 89 competitive matches. Mexico's dream of a first quarter-final since 1986 died in front of their own fans, and Javier Aguirre stepped down afterwards.
Norway 2-1 Brazil. I wrote a whole piece on this one. Haaland's brace, Brazil out in the last 16 for the first time in 36 years, the Viking Row afterwards. Still one of the results of the tournament.
Spain 1-0 Portugal. Yeah. That one. Moving on.
France 1-0 Paraguay. Efficient. The French keep winning without ever really breaking sweat.
Argentina 3-2 Egypt. And here's where the champions nearly went home. Argentina were 2-0 DOWN with eleven minutes to go in Atlanta. Eleven minutes. Messi's dream of back-to-back World Cups was on the brink of dying, and Egypt — powered by Haissem Hassan's dribbling on the counter — were genuinely tearing them apart. And then Argentina did what champions do. They dragged themselves back and won 3-2. It's the second consecutive knockout game they've survived by the skin of their teeth after the Cape Verde epic. There was also a hugely controversial VAR call that chalked off an Egypt goal for contact on the other side of the pitch, which the Egyptian FA formally complained about. Rough for them.
Switzerland 0-0 Colombia (4-3 pens). Rubén Vargas buried the decisive penalty and Switzerland reached their first World Cup quarter-final in over SEVENTY YEARS. A brilliant story that flew somewhat under the radar.
The quarter-finals: the fairytales all died
Eight became four, and this round was where the romance finally ran out.
France 2-0 Morocco. A rematch of the 2022 semi-final, and the same result. Mbappé and Dembélé both scored in Boston. Morocco had been magnificent — the first African nation to reach the final eight in back-to-back World Cups — but France were just too strong. Deschamps' side are the only team to have won all their matches without needing extra time. They look relentless.
Spain 1-0 Belgium. Tight, controlled, and typical of this Spain side. Unai Simón STILL hasn't conceded a goal in this tournament. Not one. They just keep winning without ever letting you breathe. Belgium's improbable run — they were 2-0 down to Senegal with four minutes left in the Round of 32 and somehow won — finally ended in Los Angeles.
England 2-1 Norway (AET). The end of the Haaland story, and it was strangely sad. Schjelderup put Norway ahead in the 36th minute, Bellingham equalized right before half-time, and then Bellingham struck again three minutes into extra time, pouncing on a Nyland error. But the story of the game was Haaland. England's plan — reportedly built with the help of his Manchester City teammates — was simple: don't let him touch the ball. And it worked. He had two shots all game. He was kept off the scoresheet for the first time in the tournament. And then, in a moment that stunned everyone, Solbakken took him OFF late in extra time with Norway chasing an equalizer. The coach explained afterwards: "He was finished." A dead leg, brutal Miami heat topping 38°C, total exhaustion. Haaland and Bellingham embraced at full time, and the big Norwegian made the long walk to the dressing room for the last time. Seven goals in five games. His country's first ever quarter-final. "This has changed my life," he said. It changed ours too, mate.
Argentina 3-1 Switzerland (AET). Mac Allister scored early, Dan Ndoye equalized for the Swiss in the 67th, and it went to extra time. Then Julián Álvarez in the 112th and Lautaro Martínez in the 120+1 finally killed off Switzerland's brilliant run. Argentina keep finding a way. They've now needed extra time or a late comeback in three straight knockout games. This is not a vintage Argentina side — their average age against Egypt was over 30, the second-oldest team they've ever fielded at a World Cup — but they have Messi, and they have that champion's refusal to die.
So here's the final four
France vs Spain — Tuesday, AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
England vs Argentina — Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Final — Sunday July 19, MetLife Stadium, New York/New Jersey.
Look at that. Four European heavyweights and the defending champions. Not a single surprise package left. The Cape Verdes, the Moroccos, the Norways, the Switzerlands — all the romance is gone, and what's left is pure, brutal quality.
France are, for me, the most complete team left. Five games, five wins, no extra time needed. Mbappé, Dembélé, that ridiculous squad depth. They're chasing a third consecutive World Cup final, which is absurd when you say it out loud.
Spain haven't conceded a goal. In the whole tournament. Unai Simón's net remains unbreached and Lamine Yamal, at 18, is playing football that shouldn't be possible for a teenager. They knocked us out, so I have every reason to want them to fail — and yet I can't deny they've been the most coherent team in this competition.
England are... England. But this England, under Tuchel, feels different. Bellingham has been the player of the knockouts, scoring in every round and dragging them through games they might otherwise have lost. Kane's got six goals. They survived the Azteca with ten men. They're in their fourth ever World Cup semi-final, chasing a first trophy since 1966.
Argentina shouldn't still be here. They've been on the brink in three straight knockout games. They're old. They're creaking. But they have the greatest player of all time in his final World Cup, and if there's one thing you learn watching football long enough, it's that you never write off a champion who still has Messi.
The Ronaldo–Messi thing
I have to mention this because it's been living in my head rent-free.
The dream final — Ronaldo vs Messi, the two icons of a generation meeting on the biggest stage of their final World Cup — is dead. It died in Dallas, on the 91st minute, when Merino's shot went past Diogo Costa. Ronaldo's World Cup career ended there. And Messi, somehow, is still going, two wins away from a second consecutive World Cup and the most storybook ending in the history of the sport.
There's a bitterness to that if you're Portuguese. I won't pretend otherwise. Watching Messi march on while Cristiano flies home is a hard thing for a Portugal fan to swallow, especially given how differently the two of them have been used and managed at this tournament.
But football doesn't care about narratives. It cares about goals, and moments, and who takes their chances. Argentina took theirs. We didn't.
What I'm hoping for now
Honestly? I don't know who I want to win. As a Portugal fan, part of me wants Spain to lose in the most painful way possible, purely out of spite. Part of me wants France, because they've been the best team and deserve it. Part of me — a very small, very quiet part — would love to see Messi lift it one more time, because watching greatness get its perfect ending is one of the few things in sport that transcends rivalry.
What I know for certain is this: the semi-finals are going to be absolutely enormous. France vs Spain is a European heavyweight clash that could be the de facto final. England vs Argentina carries decades of history and needle.
Five days. Two games. Then one final in New Jersey to decide it all.
Portugal are gone. But this World Cup isn't finished with us yet.