There are only eight teams left in the World Cup and each is only two wins a way from a place in the final after a month of extraordinary action at sport’s biggest event.All three co-hosts have now departed but defending champions Argentina are still going after a stunning comeback win in the last 16, while Erling Haaland has reached global superstar status by leading Norway into the quarterfinals.Haaland will face Harry Kane’s England in Miami looking to reach a semifinal and catch Messi in the race for the golden boot. The Argentina forward, with eight goals, leads by one from Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, whose France side plays Morocco.This is what the full quarterfinal bracket looks like.Here we asked our writers to make their predictions, including the best games and the winners of the four ties as well as their picks of the best players of the round of 16, the stars people aren’t saying enough about and more.This is what they said.The most impressive team performance in the round of 16 was…Lukas Weese: England. To go into the raucous cauldron known as the Azteca and beat Mexico with only 10 players for the last 30 minutes was remarkable.Phil Hay: A tough call, because England and Norway were impressive but I thought Belgium reacting to the mess surrounding Folarin Balogun by taking the USMNT to the cleaners eclipsed everything else. It wasn’t a statement in terms of their chances of winning the World Cup, but it was definitely two fingers to what went on in the preceding 48 hours.Sam Lee: I think it has to be Norway knocking out Brazil. It was final confirmation that they know what they are doing and they are far from just an ordinary, well-organised outfit with Erling Haaland up front. It was a shame their high press only lasted three minutes but considering they have not been at a World Cup for 28 years they looked very comfortable playing Brazil in a knock-out round. Credit to Morocco for a very professional job on Canada, and it was good to see Belgium turn up.Jack Pitt-Brooke: England. They played three games in one in Mexico City. They were patient and organised at the start, getting a foothold. They were brutally efficient on the counter-attack. And then they defended deep with a back five, heading endless crosses away, to see out the win. It was not perfect, but they showed so many new elements to their game at the Azteca.Carl Anka: Belgium’s dismantling of USMNT cleaned up a lot of worms that were first thrown across the room by FIFA’s decision to lift Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension. Belgium’s performance felt like karmic retribution.Simon Hughes: Having watched Belgium struggle so desperately in their opening game, and having followed their limitations since, I did not believe they had it in them to recover as they did against Senegal in the round of 16 and then overcome the various obstacles in their way against USMNT in Seattle. To utterly dismantle the host amid such unique circumstances should probably be regarded as the result of the tournament.Lukaku and Belgium revelled in beating the U.S. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)Thom Harris: Shall I throw Morocco into the mix? Canada were admittedly poor as they ventured south, but a 3-0 win was a pretty ruthless way to dispatch one of the co-hosts. It now means that they have only lost once over 90 minutes in their last fifty games. Noussair Mazaroui was defensively solid once again, while it was great to see Azzedine Ounahi get off the mark with two expertly-taken goals.James Horncastle: Why not Belgium? Rudi Garcia’s decision to bench Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne and Jeremy Doku was one of the gutsiest of the tournament. How many people looked at the team sheet and thought: WTF? For Belgium to then execute his game plan and make the U.S. look so ordinary in Seattle, their own backyard, was mightily impressive in light of the build-up and expectation they’d go out.Laurie Whitwell: Argentina made a play with their togetherness when on the brink of elimination against Egypt, but Norway are a proper team, working in unison and understanding their roles. Their performance — in handing Brazil their lowest possession in a World Cup match at 34 per cent — was a triumph.Austin Green: Definitely Belgium. Overshadowed by the Folarin Balogun mess is how impressively Rudi Garcia shuffled his midfield and organized his tactics to perfectly counter how Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT wanted to play. I don’t think we will ever get a firm answer as to how much the Balogun issue affected both teams’ mentalities, but Belgium’s tactical brilliance convinced me it would not have ultimately changed the final outcome.Haaland helped demolish Brazil (Al Bello/Getty Images)Greg O’Keeffe: England had to dig deep at the Azteca, then dig some more to find the well of resilience they used to pull off one of their most memorable results. Given all the set-backs which beset them, to silence that iconic stadium and make it into the next round was an achievement which narrowly outshone Norway’s slick progress.Felipe Cardenas: From a pure heart and conviction perspective, it was England. But Belgium’s sharpness and tactical dominance over the U.S. was so good. It was as complete a performance as I have seen at this World Cup.Stu James: I’m torn between Belgium, England and Norway, which is a measure of my indecisiveness but also the fact that you can make a strong case for each. Belgium, thriving on the injustice of the Folarin Balogun farce, didn’t just beat the USMNT; they hammered them. For England to win in the Azteca, especially after playing with 10 men for so long, was hugely impressive too. But I’m going to say Norway. Yes, it’s not the Brazil of old but it is still Brazil. There was a moment near the end when Norway were 2-0 up and playing keep-ball. Remarkable.Laura Williamson: England. It was surreal getting up in the middle of the night to watch it live but my goodness it was worth it.The most impressive individual performance was…Weese: Erling Haaland. His ability to appear invisible, only to then unleash an impeccable header and powerful boot is astonishing.Hay: Jude Bellingham, for England in Mexico. Erling Haaland came very close with his brace against Brazil but Bellingham’s goals and graft under insane pressure in the Azteca was the international performance of his life to date.Pitt-Brooke: I think it has to be Haaland. He has been one of the stories of the World Cup. Seeing him so emotionally invested in this team and in this tournament has been thrilling, and a reminder of how powerful international football is. Those two goals against Brazil were remarkable goals, two of his very best, and there is no reason why he cannot do the same to England on Saturday.Lee: It’s my job to watch Erling Haaland at Manchester City but as he celebrated his second goal against Brazil I found myself thinking, “I didn’t realise he was this good”. I’ve seen him play for City at least 150 times in the flesh, I know he doesn’t touch the ball much, I know why he doesn’t touch the ball much, I’ve seen him have off days and I know when he’s at it. I’ve seen him be made a captain by Pep Guardiola, I’ve seen him shoulder the burden for City’s goal scoring. In some ways I’ve seen him grow up, and yet maybe I didn’t realise that he has this capacity to be the main guy to such a massive extent.Hughes: That’s easy. Haaland. He is ridiculous. I think Norway can win the World Cup because of him.Anka: Morgan Rogers is a good, borderline, great player who had an excellent 2025-26 season for Aston Villa. There’s a reasonable argument to be made that his positional discipline from the 10 position better protects an England team that has an uneven front press. But when you watch Jude Bellingham score twice at the Azteca, and make a last gasp intervention on a possible Mexico goal in the first half … Bellingham has a feel for the big moments in a way that is very rare to come across in an England shirt. I hope the country now understands how good he is, and how much he should be cherished.Bellingham played brilliantly at the Azteca (Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)Harris: Bellingham for me too. It’s exhausting just watching him, so to combine that relentless off-ball running and defensive commitment with two enormous goals is pretty heroic stuff. We are lucky to have him.Horncastle: Charles de Ketelaere hasn’t got a mention. This is a disgrace. He was involved in three of Belgium’s four goals. Who pressed Matt Freese into his mistake? It was CDK. The Atalanta forward matches elegance with size. His versatility means he is often very difficult to pick up. He takes defenders places they don’t want to be. This was a complete performance.