The third day of the Round of 32 tidied up a lot of loose ends. Two of the pre-tournament favourites — France and Mexico — took care of business without needing a late twist, and Norway extended the most enjoyable story of the tournament by grinding out another result they should not, on the balance of expected goals, have got. Twelve of the sixteen Round of 16 slots are now filled. Here is how Day 3 played out.
France 3–0 · The response Deschamps needed
After the group-stage stumble against Norway that dropped France to second in Group I, the questions had piled up quickly: was the midfield balance wrong, was Mbappé being asked to do too much creating, was the back line as suspect as the Norway game had made it look? The Round of 32 answered most of them.
France went ahead inside twelve minutes through a Mbappé finish off a Camavinga cutback, doubled it before the break, and closed it out with a set-piece header in the second half. Zero expected goals conceded. Zero shots on target against. It was the version of this team Deschamps had been trying to coax out for a month. The one that pressed high, played through the lines, and turned possession into chances instead of possession for its own sake.
The tactical wrinkle worth noting: Camavinga started as the deeper of the two eights rather than as a screen. It let Tchouaméni sit, made the midfield triangle asymmetric, and gave Mbappé a runner overlapping on his side rather than an anchor behind him. France looked coherent. They will need to look at least that coherent in the Round of 16.
Mexico 2–1 · SoFi Stadium delivers
Mexico's Round of 32 tie was always going to lean on the crowd. The 80,000-plus at SoFi were loud from an hour before kick-off, drowned out the visiting anthem, and stayed on their feet through both halves. The football matched the atmosphere for stretches only — Mexico were sharp for the opening 25 minutes, sluggish in the middle third of the match, and revived in the last twenty.
The opener was a Santiago Giménez back-post finish from a cross the defence lost twice. The second was a penalty converted by Edson Álvarez after a VAR review that took nearly four minutes and took the temperature of the stadium down several degrees before bringing it back up. The consolation goal came in stoppage time and never really threatened to change the outcome.
Home advantage is a slippery thing to quantify at a World Cup, but if there was a game that made the case for it as a tangible edge today, this was it. Mexico were nervy in the passing phase, off their usual passing rhythms, and still walked off with the win because the crowd carried them through the twenty minutes in the middle where nothing was quite working.
Norway 2–1 · The dream continues
Norway have now won three World Cup knockout matches in three days' worth of headlines, which is a way of saying they have one, and it is the one that mattered. The Group I upset of France bought them belief. The Round of 32 win — a scrappy, late, expected-goals-losing performance — has bought them a Round of 16 place.
Ståle Solbakken picked essentially the same eleven that beat France, moved Ødegaard fifteen yards deeper on Norway's turnovers, and let Haaland lead the counter. It worked, again. Haaland got the opener from an Ødegaard chip into the channel. The equaliser came from a defensive lapse Solbakken will spend two days screaming about, and the winner came off a corner in the 81st minute — the kind of goal Norway have made a small industry of this tournament.
Round of 16 picture
With Day 3 done, thirteen of the sixteen last-16 tickets are booked. Day 4 on Thursday completes the round with three ties — Spain against Austria at SoFi Stadium, Portugal against Croatia at BMO Field in Toronto, and Switzerland against Algeria in Vancouver. From the group already through, three storylines already stand out:
- France on the harder side of the draw. The group-stage second-place finish routed them into the bracket half featuring Brazil and Argentina. There is essentially no easy path from here.
- Norway's underdog run has a real ceiling now. One more win and Norway are in a World Cup quarterfinal. Their projected opponent in the Round of 16 is beatable on the evidence of the last week.
- Mexico's home run continues. A quarterfinal with Mexico still in it means a stadium that is going to sound like nothing else at this World Cup — possibly ever.
What to watch tomorrow
Day 4 is a three-match slate that closes the Round of 32. Portugal-Croatia in Toronto is the marquee — a knockout meeting between two of the more experienced squads in the tournament, in front of what will be one of the loudest neutral crowds of the knockout stage. Spain-Austria at SoFi opens the day; Switzerland- Algeria in Vancouver is the sleeper on paper, with two structured defensive sides likely to make it tight. Live coverage and score updates on Scorelisto's soccer page, and drop back to the blog for tomorrow morning's Day 4 preview.
FAQ
When is France's Round of 16 game? The Round of 16 begins Saturday, July 4. France's fixture will be scheduled on either Saturday or Sunday depending on FIFA's slotting decision for kick-off times.
Are all the top seeds still alive after Day 3? Yes. All Pot 1 seeds who made the knockout stage — Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain — are still in the bracket after Day 3.
What is the largest expansion of the World Cup format that made a Round of 32 necessary? The 2026 edition is the first at 48 teams, up from 32. Twelve four-team groups replaced the previous eight, with the top two plus the eight best third-placed teams advancing to a new Round of 32. See our full 2026 format explainer for the bracket mechanics.
Where can I follow live scores? Live scores and match tracking on Scorelisto's soccer page, with push notifications for goals through the Round of 16 and beyond.