FIFA World Cup: Round of 32 bracket and schedule confirmed

The knockout stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins on Sunday with South Africa taking on Canada in the first round of 32 tie.

With the group stage complete, the full knockout bracket is now set. Nine African nations have reached the round of 32, Iran were eliminated after Algeria’s late qualification and the draw has left the door open to a Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo final.

Here’s the full round of 32 schedule, the South Africa vs Canada prediction and the latest World Cup news:

What is Sunday’s schedule?

South Africa vs Canada at Los Angeles Stadium, California, in the United States at noon (19:00 GMT).

What are the predictions for South Africa vs Canada?

This will be only the second meeting between South Africa and Canada. The sides’ only previous encounter ended in a 2-0 win for Bafana Bafana in a friendly in Durban in 2007.

Canada, however, will be looking to end another unwanted record. They have lost both of their previous competitive matches against African opposition, falling 2-0 to Cameroon at the 2001 Confederations Cup before a 2-1 defeat to Morocco at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Despite that history, the Opta supercomputer shows Canada as the clear favourites. They won 55 percent of 25,000 pre-match simulations while South Africa triumphed in 20 percent. The remaining 24.9 percent of its calculations ended level after 90 minutes, which would send the tie to extra time and potentially penalties.

Overall, Canada are given a 67.8 percent chance of reaching the quarterfinals, compared with 32.2 percent for South Africa.

When and where will the other knockout matches be played?

Monday

Brazil vs Japan: (noon/17:00 GMT) at Houston Stadium, Texas, in the US
Germany vs Paraguay: (4:30pm/20:30 GMT) at Boston Stadium, Massachusetts, in the US
Netherlands vs Morocco: (7pm/01:00 GMT on Tuesday) at Monterrey Stadium in Mexico

Tuesday

Ivory Coast vs Norway (noon/17:00 GMT) at Dallas Stadium, Texas, in the US
France vs Sweden (5pm/21:00 GMT) at New York/New Jersey Stadium in the US
Mexico vs Ecuador (7pm/02:00 GMT on Wednesday) at Mexico City Stadium in Mexico

Wednesday

England vs Democratic Republic of the Congo (noon/16:00 GMT) at Atlanta Stadium, Georgia, in the US
Belgium vs Senegal (1pm/20:00 GMT) at Seattle Stadium in the US state of Washington
USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina (5pm/00:00 GMT on Thursday) at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, California, in the US

Thursday

Spain vs Austria (noon/19:00 GMT) at Los Angeles Stadium
Portugal vs Croatia (7pm/23:00 GMT) at Toronto Stadium, Ontario, Canada
Switzerland vs Algeria (8pm/03:00 GMT on Friday) at BC Place Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Friday

Australia vs Egypt (1pm/18:00 GMT) at Dallas Stadium
Argentina vs Cape Verde (6pm/22:00 GMT) at Miami Stadium, Florida, in the US
Colombia vs Ghana (8:30pm/01:30 GMT on Saturday) at Kansas City Stadium, Missouri, in the US

Africa set a new World Cup record

African teams have enjoyed their best-ever men’s World Cup campaign.

A record 10 African nations qualified for the expanded 2026 tournament, and nine have reached the round of 32, the most from the continent in a single World Cup.

Those who qualified are: Algeria, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa.

Tunisia are the only African side eliminated so far.

The success builds on Africa’s growing influence on the world stage after Morocco’s historic run to the 2022 semifinals. With more nations now consistently challenging football’s traditional powers, the continent is enjoying its strongest World Cup showing yet.