World Cup favourites France were made to sweat to book their quarter-final place but Kylian Mbappe’s second-half penalty proved enough to help them past a resolute Paraguay in Philadelphia. Paraguay limited the two-time winners to very few chances until substitute Desire Doue was fouled inside the box by Brighton’s Diego Gomez and referee Ilgiz Tantashev pointed to the spot after a video assistant referee (VAR) intervention.
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Canada became the first co-host to exit the 2026 World Cup as they were well beaten by Morocco in Houston. The Moroccans, having failed to impress in a bad-tempered first half, took the lead five minutes after the interval through Azzedine Ounahi. The Girona midfielder scored his second by converting a breakaway with eight minutes remaining to seal victory. And an ultimately comfortable win was topped off in stoppage time as Soufiane Rahimi slid his shot under keeper Maxime Crepeau.
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Colombia booked the last place in the World Cup’s last 16 as they beat Ghana 1-0 in Kansas City. Jhon Arias grabbed the only goal after 14 minutes as they earned a meeting with Switzerland in Vancouver. Both sides were forced into early changes by injury, Luis Suarez coming on for Jhon Cordoba and making an instant impact – his cross being swept in by the unmarked Arias at the far post.
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A 111th-minute Diney Borges own goal saved holders Argentina from one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history as they scraped past heroic debutants Cape Verde in the last 32.
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Egypt recorded their first World Cup knockout victory as Australia’s decision to send on goalkeeper Mat Ryan specifically for the penalty shoot-out failed to pay off. Ryan replaced Patrick Beach with the score at 1-1 with 90 seconds remaining in a pre-determined tactic – however the former Brighton keeper failed to guess the right way, never mind get near any of Egypt’s attempts, as the African side prevailed 4-2 on spot-kicks.
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