Animations onAnimations off
Mark Smith/ISI Photos
Incredible images from the World Cup
Just two remain. After more than five weeks and 100 football matches, the biggest World Cup in history will see either Spain or Argentina crowned champions on Sunday night.
It means either Barcelona legend Lionel Messi will win his second World Cup with Argentina – or Barcelona prodigy Lamine Yamal will win his first with Spain.
For fans of the other 46 teams the tournament has produced amazing goals, outstanding saves and desperate tackles – but ultimately disappointment as each has been eliminated.
Finn Gomez/The Boston Globeus/
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP
For England, it was heartache in semi-finals again when they lost to Argentina.
It was their second World Cup semi-final defeat in eight years and the third since they last won the tournament in 1966.
The tournament had started brightly with Harry Kane scoring England’s first two goals against Croatia – the first from the penalty spot.
They stuttered to a goalless draw against Ghana, before Jude Bellingham helped the team to victory against Panama to top their group.
Kane, who scored England’s second against Panama, also scored two late goals to win their Round of 32 match – after opponents DR Congo had taken an early lead.
But all that was a prequel to a classic match against co-hosts Mexico, with Jarrell Quansah’s 58th-minute red card leaving England clinging on.
It was one of England’s greatest tournament games, with two more goals from Bellingham and another Kane penalty seeing them win 3-2.
And fans had Bellingham to thank again when the team came from behind to beat Norway 2-1 in the quarter-final.
The semi-final saw England take the lead through an Anthony Gordon goal after 55 minutes, but this time they couldn’t hold on and late goals from Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez meant Argentina were celebrating at the final whistle.
It means England’s 60-year wait for success continues and they must now play France in the third-place play-off.
Bellingham and Kane, who both have six goals in the tournament, are still in with a shot at winning the Golden Boot.
They must overtake Norway’s Erling Haaland who has seven goals – but is now out of the tournament – and 2022 Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappé, who they will face when they play France on Saturday night, on eight goals.
Peter Cziborra/Reuters
Darrian Traynor/
And all four trail Messi who, like Mbappé, has eight goals but also has one more assist.
Despite having won almost every award in football and playing more World Cup games than any other player, Messi has never claimed the Golden Boot.
<img src="https://absafricatv.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/p0nxjndx.png" alt="A bar chart showing the top four players in the race for the 2026 Golden Boot, Messi has eight goals and one assist, Mbappe has seven goals and two assists, Haaland has seven goals and no assists and Kane has six goals and one assist”>
Messi and Mbappé have now also scored more World Cup goals than any other player in history, having overtaken Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who scored 16 goals in four tournaments between 2002 and 2014.
Messi now has 21 goals in six World Cups, while Mbappé has 20 in three – including a brace scored in the group match against Iraq that was the first match in the tournament to be interrupted by storms.
For Messi’s great rival Ronaldo the tournament ended with a 1-0 defeat for Portugal against Spain.
He has confirmed he won’t compete in another World Cup, while Brazil’s Neymar has retired from international football altogether after their defeat to Norway.
Four-time winners Germany and three-time finalists the Netherlands were among other big hitters who were knocked out earlier than some expected, after penalty-shootout losses against Paraguay and Morocco respectively.
The knockout stages also saw the departure of Cape Verde – who were arguably the story of the tournament after holding Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to make it out of the group stages stages in their first World Cup.
Forty-year-old Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha, who made crucial saves through the tournament and left the pitch after the final whistle in their opening match against Spain in tears, became a social media sensation and has had a newly discovered species of sea slug named after him.
The tiny African nation – the third smallest to appear at a World Cup – couldn’t get past Argentina despite taking the tie into extra time and equalizing twice, including a stunning curling shot from the edge of the penalty area.
An own goal moments later saw Argentina through, but the players returned to Cape Verde to a hero’s welcome with crowds surrounding the players’ bus in Praia to cheer them home.
Also out are the three co-hosts: Mexico after the defeat to England, Canada were beaten by Morocco, and the US lost to Belgium.
The build-up to the US match was overshadowed by Fifa’s decision to suspend a one-match ban for striker Folarin Balogun – and US President Donald Trump’s statement that he had asked Fifa to review the punishment.
Michael Steele/Getty Images
Balogun – the US’s top scorer – was shown a straight red card for a foul on Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic in the Round of 32
Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images
Suspending the ban that normally follows a red card meant Balogun could play against Belgium – and Belgium’s football authorities were among many to criticise Fifa’s decision
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
After Belgium’s 4-1 win, the team’s official Instagram account posted a picture of striker Romelu Lukaku cupping his ear with the caption “overturn this”
The defeat means the US have now fallen at the last-16 stage at four of the past five World Cups.
And Mexico had been hoping to reach their first quarter-final since they last hosted the tournament in 1986.
For Canada, despite disappointment against Morocco, the team could celebrate their first ever World Cup point and their first wins in the tournament as they beat Qatar in the group stage and South Africa in their Round of 32 match.
Scotland, who won their first game against Haiti with a goal from John McGinn, agonisingly missed out on a place in the final 32 after defeats to Morocco and Brazil saw them slip out of the best third placed teams in the group stage.
The Tartan Army had flocked to the tournament to watch their team, who were appearing at their first World Cup since 1998.
They were joined by fans from around the world all looking to support their teams through the highs and lows of the competition.
Fans from Norway even went viral with clips of them performing their unique mass Viking rowing celebration taking social media by storm.
The festival of football all started five weeks ago with almost 87,500 fans, celebrities and dignitaries packed into the Estadio Azteca to see co-hosts Mexico open their campaign with a 2-0 win against South Africa.
They were treated to a dazzling opening ceremony featuring gold-clad performers, some wearing indigenous-style clothing, feathered outfits and headdresses.
But unusually that was just the first of three opening ceremonies, with fellow co-hosts Canada next up with their red-and-white dominated display in Toronto.
And Los Angeles hosted the final opening ceremony as the US prepared to get their World Cup campaign under way with a match against Paraguay.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino had promised the three ceremonies would “bring together music, culture and football in a way that reflects both the individuality of each nation and the unity that defines this tournament”.
They concluded with performances from Shakira, Alanis Morissette and Katy Perry before each host nation kicked off their respective opening matches and started the five-and-a-half-week tournament.
Carl Recine/
Ulrik Pedersen/
Omar Vega/
Ulises Ruiz/afpetty images
More on the World Cup
World Cup stars who could move this summer
Find your local World Cup hero with our postcode lookup
The financial winners and losers from the World Cup
