Following Iran’s expulsion, the knockout match begins with South Africa vs. Canada, with Africa expected to make history and see the final rise of Messi and Ronaldo.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup finals tournament begins on Sunday, with South Africa facing Canada in a round of 32 tie.
The group stage is complete and the full knockout bracket is set. Nine African countries made it to the last 32, but Iran was eliminated by Algeria in the final stages of qualifying, resulting in a draw that opened the door for a final between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Here’s the full Round of 32 schedule, South Africa vs. Canada predictions and the latest World Cup news.
What is the schedule for Sunday?
South Africa vs Canada will be held at noon (7pm GMT) at Los Angeles Stadium in California, USA.
What are your predictions for South Africa vs. Canada?
This is the second meeting between South Africa and Canada. The only previous meeting between the two teams was in a friendly in Durban in 2007, with Bafana Bafana winning 2-0.
But Canada will also aim to end an undesirable record. They have lost all of their previous competitive matches against African opponents, losing 2-0 to Cameroon in the 2001 Confederations Cup and 2-1 to Morocco at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Despite that history, the Opta supercomputer shows Canada as the clear favorite to win. The 25,000 pre-match simulations showed South Africa winning 55% of the time and 20% of the time. The remaining 24.9 percent of the calculations will end in a tie after 90 minutes, leading to extra time and possibly penalties.
Overall, Canada has a 67.8% chance of making the quarter-finals, compared to 32.2% for South Africa.
When and where will the other finals be held?
Monday
Brazil vs. Japan: (noon/17:00 GMT) Houston Stadium, Texas, USA Germany vs. Paraguay: (4:30pm GMT/20:30 GMT) Boston Stadium, Massachusetts, USA Netherlands vs. Morocco: (Tuesday 7:00pm/01:00 GMT) Monterrey Stadium, Mexico
Tuesday
Ivory Coast vs. Norway (noon/17:00 GMT) at Dallas Stadium, Texas, USA France vs. Sweden (5:21:00 GMT) at New York/New Jersey Stadium, USA Mexico vs. Ecuador (Wednesday 7:00pm/2:00 GMT) at Mexico City Stadium, Mexico
Wednesday
England vs. Democratic Republic of the Congo (noon/16:00 GMT) at Atlanta Stadium, Georgia, USA Belgium vs. Senegal (1:20pm GMT) at Seattle Stadium, Washington, USA USA vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Thursday 5:00pm/12:00 GMT) at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, California, USA
Thursday
Spain vs. Austria (noon/7pm GMT) at Los Angeles Stadium Portugal vs. Croatia (7pm GMT) at Toronto Stadium, Ontario, Canada Switzerland vs. Algeria (Friday 8pm/3pm GMT) BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Friday
Australia vs Egypt (1pm/6pm GMT) at Dallas Stadium Argentina vs Cape Verde (6pm GMT) at Miami Stadium, Florida, USA Colombia vs Ghana (Saturday, 8:30pm GMT) at Kansas City Stadium, Missouri, USA
What else is going on?
Will Iran be eliminated from the 2026 World Cup?
yes. Iran was eliminated from the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Team Melli’s hopes rested on Saturday’s final Group J match between Austria and Algeria. A draw was the only result that eliminated Iran, and the 3-3 score meant that Algeria moved above Iran in the ranking of third-place teams.
Algeria finished third in Group J with four points, good enough to secure the final spot among the top eight third-placed teams to advance to the Round of 32.
As a result, Iran, which held the final qualifying spot, was eliminated in the group stage.
Africa sets new World Cup record
African teams are enjoying the best campaign in Men’s World Cup history.
A record 10 African countries have qualified for the 2026 expanded tournament, with nine of them making it to the last 32, the most from an African country at a single World Cup.
The countries that have qualified are Algeria, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa.
Tunisia is the only African team to have been eliminated so far.
This success builds on Africa’s growing influence on the world stage following Morocco’s historic run to the semi-finals in 2022. Now, with more countries constantly challenging soccer’s traditional powerhouses, the continent is enjoying its strongest World Cup showing yet.
Messi vs Ronaldo final?
A knockout showdown between superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remains a possibility, but only if both captains lead their teams to the 2026 World Cup finals.
A place in the round of 32 was confirmed, with Argentina and Portugal on opposite sides of the draw, making it impossible for them to meet in the quarter-finals as many fans had hoped. This means soccer’s two biggest modern-day rivals will only be able to play each other if they both reach the final on July 19th.
The bracket has sparked a wide range of reactions on social media, with fans sharing predictions, memes and hopeful scenarios for the final matchup between the two icons, who will both be playing in their sixth World Cup.
