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A look at the road out of the World Cup’s round of 16

MOSCOW — No more ties, or tiebreakers. The World Cup is into the knockout stage, and every match will end with someone going home. After six of the eight round-of-16 games, these quarterfinals are set: France vs. Uruguay, Russia vs.
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Portugal's Adrien Silva, right, look on as Portugal's Jose Fonte, left, and Uruguay's Nahitan Nandez, second right, go for a header during the round of 16 match between Uruguay and Portugal at the 2018 soccer World Cup at the Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Russia, Saturday, June 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

MOSCOW — No more ties, or tiebreakers. The World Cup is into the knockout stage, and every match will end with someone going home.

After six of the eight round-of-16 games, these quarterfinals are set: France vs. Uruguay, Russia vs. Croatia and Brazil vs. Belgium.

Here’s a look at what’s next:

England will carry high expectations into the last game of this stage on Tuesday against a talented Colombia team at Spartak Stadium after essentially choosing that matchup by fielding a squad of reserves in its last group game against Belgium. The earlier game at St. Petersburg features a Swedish side that won a tough group versus a Swiss team with issues in the back but enough talent up front to score against anyone. The winners play July 7 for the right to go to the semifinals.

Here’s a quick look at the other round of 16 games:

On Saturday, two of the greatest players of the era followed each other out of the tournament. Lionel Messi and Argentina lost 4-3 to France, which got two goals from teenager Kylian Mbappe. Four hours later, Cristian Ronaldo and his European champion Portugal team lost 2-1 to Uruguay.

France and Uruguay were the first teams to reach the quarterfinals, and they’ll meet on July 6.

On Sunday, for the first time at a World Cup since 1986, two games were decided on penalty shootouts on the same day. The net result: Russia and Croatia will meet in a July 7 quarterfinals in Sochi.

Russia and Spain were tied 1-1 after extra time, and the Russians clinched the shootout 4-3 in Moscow. Andres Iniesta, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the 2010 World Cup, retired from international football after the match. Croatia and Denmark were tied 1-1 at the end of extra time. Goalkeeper Danijel Subasic made three saves in the shootout— equaling a World Cup record — as Croatia won 3-2 on penalties over the Danes.

On Monday, five-time champion Brazil beat Mexico 2-0 and Belgium left it to the last minute of stoppage time to clinch a 3-2 win over Japan.

It was the first time since West Germany rallied to beat England in extra time that a team has rallied from 2-0 down to win a knockout game at the World Cup. It was the first time since 1966, when Portugal beat North Korea, that a team has come back from 2-0 down to win a knockout match in normal time.