The World Cup 2026 Round of 16 playing field is starting to take shape, with seven teams already taking their spots. Canada qualified last Monday, and Brazil, Paraguay, and Morocco followed suit yesterday. And today, Norway, France, and Mexico have joined the party.
Norway won 2-1 against Ivory Coast, while France and Mexico demolished Sweden and 10-man Ecuador, respectively. As a result, Norway have drawn Brazil as their next opponents, while France will take on Paraguay, who defied the World Cup 2026 odds against Germany. As for Mexico, they’ll await the winner of the match between England and DR Congo, and Canada will square off against Morocco (instead of the Netherlands).
While yesterday’s games were mostly decided via penalties, today’s World Cup 2026 results were more straightforward, and SBOTOP is here to recap them one by one.
Ivory Coast 1-2 Norway
After deploying a rotated side in their defeat against France, head coach Stale Solbakken went full force against Ivory Coast, and Erling Haaland guided the Vikings to a 2-1 victory earlier today.
Haaland almost drew first blood inside three minutes when his header was blocked. The Manchester City striker had another attempt in the 37th minute before Antonio Nusa scored a wonderful curler two minutes later to become Norway’s youngest goalscorer at a major tournament at 21 years and 74 days, breaking the previous record set by Steffen Iversen (23 years, 216 days).
Martin Odegaard received credit for the assist on Nusa’s goal, making him the first player to set up a goal in three successive World Cup matches since Dirk Kuyt in 2010, and the skipper created a huge chance in the second half.
Amad Diallo then came on as a substitute and scored the leveller for Ivory Coast in the 74th minute after an excellent one-two with Nicolas Pepe. However, Haaland replied with a routine finish 12 minutes later after excellent passes from Oscar Bobb and Patrick Berg.
Amad, who became only the third player to score twice as a substitute in a single World Cup for an African side, almost forced extra time for Les Elephants with his powerful free-kick in stoppage time. But Orjan Nyland was there to make the save to secure the Vikings’ first-ever World Cup knockout stage victory.
France 3-0 Sweden
France are through to the next round, as Kylian Mbappe and Bradley Barcola were on the scoresheet against Sweden.
Graham Potter’s men made a promising start, with Alexander Isak finding a pocket of space only to fire a tame shot straight at goalkeeper Mike Maignan. And from there, it was all Les Bleus.
Mbappe thought he had broken the deadlock 20 minutes in when he raced past Sweden’s backline to fire past Jacob Widell Zetterstrom, but the VAR disallowed the goal for offside. Michael Olise almost scored the goal of the tournament with his audacious bicycle kick in the 35th minute, but it hit the far post.
But Mbappe would get his goal right before halftime when Ousmane Dembele picked him out after a short corner. Bradley Barcola made it 2-0 for Les Bleus in the 53rd minute, as Olise set him up with a wonderful pass.
Olise continued to search for his first goal of the finals. Instead, he notched his fifth assist with a perfectly weighted pass to Mbappe in the 74th minute. The Real Madrid striker is outright second on the World Cup all-time scoring list with 18 goals, one behind Lionel Messi (19).
Mexico 2-0 Ecuador
Mexico secured their first World Cup knockout victory in 40 years, with Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez on the scoresheet against Ecuador.
Despite the kick-off being delayed by an hour due to a thunderstorm, Mexico wasted no time in finding their rhythm, recording six shots in the opening 15 minutes.
Quinones opened the scoring for El Tri through Roberto Alvarado’s assist in the 22nd minute. The 29-year-old forward turned provider for Raul Jimenez just after the half-hour mark to build an unassailable two-goal lead. Quinones is just the second Mexican to score in three games of a single World Cup, joining Luis Hernandez in 1998.
To make things worse for Ecuador, they were reduced to 10 men, as Piero Hincapie received a straight red card for covering his mouth while talking to Santiago Gimenez in stoppage time.
Mexico’s rearguard doesn’t get enough credit. Javier Aguirre’s side has yet to concede a goal in this tournament, and they didn’t concede a single shot on target in the second half after John Yeboah tested Raul Rangel in the 40th minute.
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