If you want to see some of the best players in the world, then Tuesday’s slate of round of 32 games at the 2026 World Cup will feature plenty of them.<\/p>\n
Ivory Coast and Norway open the day in Dallas with Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland facing a difficult test against an impressive team that is one of Africa\u2019s best.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second game of the day takes us to New York New Jersey Stadium, where Sweden will need a shocking upset to advance past a powerful French team \u2014 headlined by Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 and Michael Olise \u2014 that has expectations of playing in the final at the same stadium on July 19.<\/p>\n
Finally, Mexico will be looking to continue its perfect group stage campaign int the knockouts when it hosts Ecuador in Mexico City. Defense will tell the story in this game as Mexico has yet to concede at this tournament.<\/p>\n
Here is all you need to know for Tuesday at the World Cup:<\/p>\n
When: Tuesday, June 30, 1 p.m. ET<\/strong><\/p>\n Where: Dallas<\/strong><\/p>\n TV: FOX<\/strong><\/p>\n Stream: <\/strong>Watch three days free on FOX One<\/strong><\/p>\n While Norway is the favorite in Tuesday\u2019s round of 32 matchup at Dallas Stadium, Ivory Coast will be difficult to beat and enters this game in strong form.\u00a0<\/p>\n Norway finished its group stage with wins over Iraq and Senegal before losing to Germany with a heavily rotated starting lineup that did not include Martin \u00d8degaard, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those players will all return for this game, and with them, Norway boasts one of the strongest attacks in the tournament. Haaland has scored braces in his first two and has lived up to expectations.<\/p>\n Ivory Coast had lofty expectations heading into this tournament after defeating France in Nantes earlier this month. Since then, Les Elephants have only lived up to the hype. Emerse Fa\u00e9’s team conceded just two goals in the group stage, despite facing Germany and Ecuador.\u00a0<\/p>\n Physically, the Ivory Coast is one of the best teams remaining in the World Cup, but it also has a lot of skill. Its front line consists of wingers Amad Diallo of Manchester United and Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig \u2014 who is heavily linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain \u2014 along with Villarreal\u2019s Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 in the middle.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Norway, through Haaland, can score goals in droves, this game could be decided by its defense. Norway needs to improve in that area, as it has conceded at least one goal in each of the group stage games and has not kept a clean sheet in five matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Norway\u2019s defense can raise its level, there is an outstanding chance it heads to the round of 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n Midfielder \u00b7\u00a0Norway<\/p>\n Antonio Nusa<\/strong>: Understandably, Haaland receives the most attention whenever talking about the Norwegian national team. But RB Leipzig winger Antonio Nusa is one of Norway\u2019s most important players because he is one of the main scoring creators for Haaland. Nusa is going to be key in this game in making runs up the left side to get on the end of passes, typically from Martin \u00d8degaard or Sander Berge. If Nusa is effective with his crosses or passes, Haaland will be close to unstoppable.\u00a0<\/p>\n When: Tuesday, June 30, 5 p.m. ET<\/strong><\/p>\n Where: New York\/New Jersey<\/strong><\/p>\n TV: FOX<\/strong><\/p>\n Stream: <\/strong>Watch three days free on FOX One<\/strong><\/p>\n At the start of the round of 32, France looks almost unstoppable, and it will require something truly special from Sweden to pull off an upset when the teams meet on Tuesday at New York New Jersey Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n Les Bleus entered the World Cup as one of the favorites, and Didier Deschamps\u2019 squad has done nothing to suggest that isn\u2019t deserved. France scored at least three goals in each of its three group stage games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 for France (Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n The star power of this French team is phenomenal. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 has scored four goals and added an assist. Reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 also has four goals and an assist. Michael Olise has been one of the tournament’s best midfielders in the group stage, and he has added three assists.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sweden has some very good players but has done nothing to suggest it can come close to stopping the French squad. Graham Potter\u2019s team has been very inconsistent while conceding seven goals in the group stage. Against a good Netherlands team, Sweden allowed five goals in a 5-1 loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n France\u2019s defense must be careful, as Sweden has two elite forwards in Arsenal\u2019s Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Liverpool\u2019s Alexander Isak, who can score against the best of teams.<\/p>\n It is not impossible, but Sweden is going to need a lot of things to go right and a lot of luck to eliminate this French team.\u00a0<\/p>\n Forward \u00b7\u00a0France<\/p>\n As the reigning Ballon d\u2019Or winner, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 is a special player, but he didn’t score his first World Cup goal until this tournament. With that goal in the second game against Iraq, the floodgates opened, as Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 then scored a hat trick in the win over Norway in the group stage finale. Against a leaky Swedish defense, Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 could have a field day in this game.\u00a0<\/p>\n When: Tuesday, June 30, 9 p.m. ET<\/strong><\/p>\n Where: Mexico City<\/strong><\/p>\n TV: FOX<\/strong><\/p>\n Stream: <\/strong>Watch three days free on FOX One<\/strong><\/p>\n In its long and storied history, the Mexican national team has won just one knockout game at the World Cup. That was a 2-0 win over Bulgaria in the round of 16 in 1986 when it hosted the tournament. On Tuesday, exactly 40 years and 15 days later since that win over Bulgaria, Mexico will have the chance to win its second knockout game when it takes on Ecuador at the same venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enthusiasm for the national team is very high right now after El Tri won Group A with a perfect nine points with wins over South Africa, South Korea and Czechia. In those games, Javier Aguirre\u2019s team has not conceded a goal and has outscored its opponents 6-0.<\/p>\n Mexico boasts an attack that does not rely on a single player to do the heavy lifting. In total, five different players scored the team\u2019s six goals in the group stage, with Mateo Ch\u00e1vez, \u00c1lvaro Fidalgo, Raul Jim\u00e9nez, Luis Romo and Juli\u00e1n Qui\u00f1ones (twice) all finding the back of the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ecuador qualified for the knockout stages in surprising fashion as it needed a win over Germany in the group stage finale to advance. When Germany opened the scoring in the second minute, it did not seem possible. But Sebasti\u00e1n Beccacece\u2019s team rallied for a comeback win behind goals from Nilson Angulo in the ninth minute and Gonzalo Plata in the 77th minute for the victory.<\/p>\n Ecuador boasts one of the best defenses in the world. In the single-table CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying tournament, Ecuador was historically good, allowing just five goals and keeping 13 clean sheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n The team’s backline is led by Paris Saint-Germain’s Willian Pacho, Arsenal’s Piero Hincapi\u00e9, and Club Brugge’s Joel Ordonez. In front of them is Chelsea’s Mois\u00e9s Caicedo, who is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world.<\/p>\n The problem for Ecuador, however, is on the offensive side, as it was shutout in its first two games. First a 1-0 loss to the Ivory Coast and then a shocking 0-0 draw with Cura\u00e7ao.\u00a0<\/p>\n This game boasts two defenses that are tough to break down. Mexico has the advantage of playing at home and with several scoring options. But if Ecuador\u2019s defense plays as well as it can, it might just win.<\/p>\n But no one should be surprised if this game is decided on penalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n Forward \u00b7\u00a0Mexico<\/p>\n The Colombian-born attacker became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 2023 and has since become a very important player for El Tri. He was the Man of the Match in the opening win over South Africa and scored again in the win over Czechia. Now, he will be tasked with trying to find goals against a very good Ecuadorian defense. He has been in good form for most of the past year, and he recently finished as the top scorer in the Saudi Pro League for 2025-26 with 33 goals for Al Qadsiah FC.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY If you want to see some of the best players in the world, then Tuesday’s slate of round of 32 games at the 2026 World Cup will feature plenty of them. Ivory Coast and Norway open the day in Dallas with Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland facing a difficult test against an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}