The knockout bracket in the FIFA World Cup 2026 is starting to take shape.
It begins with the round of 32, which runs from June 28 to July 3.
What is the format and criteria for qualification, and which teams have progressed or been eliminated?
What is the format of the World Cup knockouts?
The top two teams in each of the 12 groups, along with the eight best third-place finishers, advance to knockouts.
The knockout phase begins with the round of 32, introduced for the first time at a World Cup after the expansion of the tournament from 32 to 48 teams.
Then comes the round of 16, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and a playoff for third place. The final is on July 19.
What are the rules change for the tie-breaker criteria at the 2026 World Cup?
Fifa is using head-to-head records instead of goal difference as the primary tiebreaker for teams level on points for the first time at a World Cup.
Haiti and Turkiye have been eliminated because they are unable to catch the third-placed teams in their respective groups because of they lost to those teams.
Tie-breaker criteria for World Cup groups
According to FIFA’s rules for the tournament, if two or more teams in the same group are equal on points after the group stage ends, the following criteria, in the order below, will be applied to determine the ranking: