This is the Round of 32. This is what it looks like. And three days in, it has already produced more genuine drama, more genuine shock, and more of the kind of football storytelling that makes the FIFA World Cup the greatest sporting event on earth than most previous tournaments managed across their entire knockout stages.

The critics were not quiet when FIFA announced the expansion to 48 teams and the introduction of a brand new first knockout round. The format would dilute quality, they said. It would hand meaningless wins to weaker nations. It would bloat a competition that already risked losing its edge. On July 1, 2026, three days into the first ever Round of 32 at a FIFA World Cup 2026, those critics owe the format an apology.

Germany Out, Paraguay Declares a National Holiday

Let’s start with the biggest story of the round so far, because it deserves to be savoured properly. Germany beat Curacao 7-1 in the group stage. They came from behind to beat Ivory Coast with a 94th minute winner. They had the momentum, the squad depth and the tournament history of a side built for these moments. And then they played Paraguay, drew 1-1, and went out of the World Cup on penalties.

Julio Enciso gave Paraguay the lead in the 42nd minute. Kai Havertz equalised nine minutes into the second half. Extra time arrived and produced nothing further. Paraguay’s goalkeeper Antony Silva stopped Germany’s first two penalty attempts, and when Germany’s fifth penalty struck the crossbar, Paraguay were through. Germany were out.

NBC News reported that Paraguay declared a national holiday in the wake of the victory. Germany’s interim coach, Jurgen Klopp, who was recruited following Julian Nagelsmann’s illness in the days before the knockout stage, gave what can only be described as an extraordinary post match press conference. He was quoted as saying that VAR had wrongly overturned a legitimate German goal in the second half, and that the process had been mishandled. His frustration was vivid and understandable. But the result stood, the history is written, and Paraguay face France on Saturday.

Morocco Knock Out the Netherlands. Again.

If Germany’s exit was the biggest single shock, Morocco’s penalty shootout win over the Netherlands might be the more significant structural story of the round. Morocco have now eliminated a European giant at consecutive World Cups, knocking out Spain, Portugal and Belgium en route to the semi finals in Qatar 2022, and now the Netherlands in this Round of 32. Cody Gakpo equalised in the 72nd minute to cancel out Issa Diop’s goal, and then Morocco held their nerve in the shootout while the Netherlands missed crucial kicks.

The Dutch born Moroccan players in the team, Noussair Mazraoui, Sofyan Amrabat and others, were singled out post match as the beating heart of Morocco’s performance, their extra motivation against the country of their birth producing some of the most committed defending and most precise penalty kicks of the round. Morocco’s coach Walid Regragui was asked whether this win meant more than the semi final run in Qatar. He said: it means the world.

England Survive, USA Defy 10-Man Football

Two co-hosts produced contrasting but equally drama-laden passages of play on July 1. England fell behind early against DR Congo when Brian Cipenga found the net to give the African side a stunning lead at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It took Harry Kane until the 75th minute to equalise with a header, before his twisting strike in the 86th minute sent England through in what became one of the more nerve-wracking Two hours in recent English footballing history.

The USA’s match was if anything even more extraordinary. Folarin Balogun scored just before half time to put the Americans ahead against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was then given a red card in the 64th minute by VAR intervention for a foul that most observers described at the time as a clear yellow at worst. With 30 minutes remaining plus whatever stoppage time followed, the USA had to defend against a full strength Bosnia and Herzegovina side with ten men. They kept a clean sheet. Malik Tillman then added a free kick of considerable beauty in the 82nd minute to seal a 2-0 win that was as much a testament to collective organisation and defensive resilience as it was to any individual moment.

Belgium vs Senegal: The Match That Summed Up This Entire Round

Of all the matches completed across the first four days of the Round of 32, the one that best captures what the new format is offering took place in Seattle on July 1. Senegal, a third placed team from the toughest group in the tournament, went 1-0 up through Habib Diarra in the 25th minute and then 2-1 up through Ismael Sarr in the 51st. Belgium, the Group G winners and one of the more experienced sides remaining in the tournament, were being beaten by a team that most bracket analysis had listed as their most manageable possible opponent.

What followed was the kind of football theatre that requires no editing or dramatisation. Romelu Lukaku equalised in the 86th minute. Youri Tielemans scored again in the 89th. Extra time could not separate them. Youri Tielemans converted from the spot in the 120th plus fifth minute to eventually settle it in Belgium’s favour in a 3-2 result that took over two hours to produce.

The Case FOR the Round of 32: Five Arguments That Have Already Been Proven

1. It Eliminates the Dead Rubber Group Stage Problem

Under the old 32 team format, the final group matchday often featured situations where both teams in a match had already qualified or both were already eliminated, producing the kind of low intensity, low stakes football that nobody wanted to watch. The 48 team format with third place qualifiers has largely removed this problem. Every group stage match carried real stakes for more teams, because finishing third with the right record could still mean progression. The energy in group stage matches this time around has been noticeably higher than in comparable matches at 2018 or 2022.

2. Germany Out in the Round of 32 Is Better for Football Than Germany Out in the Group Stage

Germany exited in the group stage in both 2018 and 2022, and both times the global reaction was one of mild interest before everyone moved on quickly. Germany exiting to Paraguay on penalties after a goal that may or may not have been wrongly disallowed by VAR, with a national holiday declared in South America and Jurgen Klopp furiously confronting the press, is a story that people will discuss for months. The Round of 32 provided a genuine moment of elimination drama for one of the world’s biggest football nations that the group stage simply cannot generate.

3. Smaller Nations Get a Genuine Knockout Moment

South Africa went home having played a Round of 32 match at the World Cup. DR Congo pushed England to the brink in Atlanta. Bosnia and Herzegovina needed ten men from the United States to survive. These are knockout moments, elimination football moments, the kind of high stakes single game experience that motivates players and inspires fans at home in ways that a meaningless third group game never could. The argument that smaller nations would just be eliminated in the Round of 32 anyway misses the point entirely: it is not about who advances, it is about who gets the experience.

4. The Bracket Structure Is Producing Genuinely Interesting Round of 16 Matchups

France vs Paraguay on Saturday. Brazil vs Norway in New York on Sunday. Mexico vs England in Mexico City on Sunday night. These are the Round of 16 matchups that the results so far are generating, and not one of them would be a dull match to watch. The bracket has produced a second round that feels more compelling across the board than a standard Round of 16 featuring only group winners and runners up typically does.

5. Penalty Shootouts at Every Stage Create Emotional Investment

Three of the first ten Round of 32 matches have gone to extra time and two have required a shootout. The shootout is the World Cup’s most emotionally intense format, and the Round of 32 is producing them at a rate that no previous World Cup stage has matched so early in the knockout rounds. Every one of them has been genuinely gripping television regardless of the nations involved.

Addressing the Criticisms Fairly

It would be dishonest to dismiss every concern about the expanded format without giving them a fair hearing, because some of them had genuine validity before the tournament started.

The concern that 48 teams would include nations that had no business competing at this level has not entirely disappeared. Some group stage matches have featured heavy defeats for smaller nations, and the argument that those matches were more predictable than a comparable match in the old 32 team format is not without foundation. What the Round of 32 has already shown, though, is that third placed teams from the group stage are not the weak sides the critics feared. Bosnia and Herzegovina pushed the USA hard with ten men on the pitch. DR Congo led England after the first quarter of an hour. South Africa made Canada work for every moment of their 1-0 win.

The argument about fixture congestion and player welfare is the more serious counter point. A team that reaches the final at the 2026 World Cup plays eight matches rather than seven. For players already at the end of a gruelling club season, that additional match represents a genuine physical load. FIFA’s response, that the tournament calendar has been restructured to give teams adequate recovery time between matches, is partially convincing. The proof will come later in the tournament if teams that have gone to extra time in the Round of 32 show signs of fatigue in the quarterfinals.

What the Rest of the Round of 32 Offers

The matches still to come between July 2 and 3 include what may be the most emotionally loaded fixture of the entire round. Argentina face Cape Verde on July 3 in Miami. Lionel Messi, fresh from breaking the all time World Cup scoring record in the group stage, leads the defending champions against a nation of 600,000 people that has already produced one of the great group stage stories of recent tournament history. That one match alone, regardless of the result, encapsulates everything the expanded format is offering: a giant with history and a story to complete, facing an underdog that has earned the right to be there.

Spain face Austria in Los Angeles on July 2. Portugal meet Croatia in Toronto. Australia take on Egypt in Arlington. Switzerland, the competition’s quietly dangerous side, face Algeria in Vancouver in what could be the round’s most unpredictable result. If the format continues to deliver at the rate it has across the first ten matches, the Round of 16 is going to feel like a reward rather than a relief.

Remaining Round of 32 Fixtures  |  July 2 to 3

The Verdict

FIFA has been wrong about a great many things over the years, and will no doubt be wrong about a great many more. The expansion to 48 teams carried genuine risks, and some of those risks materialised in the group stage in predictable ways. But the Round of 32 format, in its first three days of existence, has produced the kind of high stakes drama that the World Cup promises and occasionally fails to deliver.

Germany, four time champions, are out. Morocco, ranked 13th in the world, are through. Norway, Erling Haaland and a nation that had not been at a World Cup since 1998 are in the Round of 16. Paraguay, who came into the round as a third placed qualifier nobody gave much chance, have declared a national holiday. The USA played the final 30 minutes of a World Cup knockout match with ten men and still won.

This is what the Round of 32 looks like after three days. This is what it feels like. And it feels, in the most honest assessment possible, like the best new rule in football in a generation.