Day 36 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is the first of two scheduled rest days between the semifinals and the tournament\u2019s final weekend.<\/p>\n
There are no World Cup games today, Thursday, July 16, or Friday, July 17. Play resumes Saturday when France faces England in the third-place match, followed by Sunday\u2019s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. Both matches will air on FOX and stream live and on demand on FOX One.<\/p>\n
France entered the semifinals with six consecutive victories and had outscored its opponents 16-2 before falling 2-0 to Spain. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 remains tied with Lionel Messi for the Golden Boot lead with eight goals, while Michael Olise\u2019s five assists lead the tournament.<\/p>\n
England was five minutes from reaching its first World Cup final since 1966 before Argentina scored twice late to win Wednesday\u2019s semifinal 2-1. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have scored six goals apiece, giving England two of the tournament\u2019s leading scorers.<\/p>\n
Spain reached its first World Cup final since winning the tournament in 2010 by shutting out France 2-0. La Roja has surrendered only one goal in seven matches while recording six clean sheets. Spain is also unbeaten in 37 consecutive internationals (28 wins and nine draws) matching Italy\u2019s record run from 2018 to 2021.<\/p>\n
Argentina reached its second straight final with a dramatic comeback against England. Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez equalized in the 85th minute before Lautaro Mart\u00ednez headed home the winner two minutes into stoppage time. Lionel Messi assisted both goals, increasing his World Cup-record career total to 12 assists.<\/p>\n
Argentina is attempting to become the first nation to win consecutive men\u2019s World Cups since Brazil in 1958 and 1962. Spain is seeking its second championship.<\/p>\n
No teams play today. Thursday, July 16, is a scheduled rest day.<\/p>\n
The third-place match and World Cup final will air on FOX, with both games streaming live and on demand on FOX One.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Day 36 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is the first of two scheduled rest days between the semifinals and the tournament\u2019s final weekend. There are no World Cup games today, Thursday, July 16, or Friday, July 17. Play resumes Saturday when France faces England in the third-place match, followed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6771","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\/6771","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=6771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}