World Cup 2026 Quarterfinals: Full Schedule, Times and Venues

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has reached the stage where every mistake can end a country’s dream. Only eight teams remain from the 48-team World Cup that began the tournament, and the next four matches will decide who moves one step closer to lifting football’s biggest prize.

With heavyweight nations, familiar rivalries and a few surprise contenders still standing, the quarterfinals promise four very different battles.

From a repeat of the 2022 semifinal between France and Morocco to Erling Haaland’s Norway taking on England, every fixture comes with its own story.

Below is the complete quarterfinal schedule, followed by my ranking of the matches and a look at what could decide each one.

The full schedule

Match	Date (US)	ET	UK & West Africa	Central Europe	Venue
France vs Morocco	Thu, July 9	4:00 PM	9:00 PM	10:00 PM	Boston Stadium
Spain vs Belgium	Fri, July 10	3:00 PM	8:00 PM	9:00 PM	Los Angeles Stadium
Norway vs England	Sat, July 11	5:00 PM	10:00 PM	11:00 PM	Miami Stadium
Argentina vs Switzerland	Sat, July 11	9:00 PM	2:00 AM (Sun)	3:00 AM (Sun)	Kansas City Stadium

Official fixture information is available on FIFA’s website

If you’re watching from Lagos, Accra or anywhere else in West Africa, there’s one useful thing to know. Your local time is the same as the UK time shown above because British Summer Time and West Africa Time are both UTC+1 in July. That means you don’t need to convert the kick-off times.

Which quarterfinal should you watch first?

Not every tie on this list deserves equal attention, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

Norway vs England is the one I would clear my schedule for. Erling Haaland has been the tournament’s most terrifying finisher after his brace against Brazil, and England only survived Mexico by playing the last half hour with ten men. Whoever blinks first in midfield probably loses this.

Argentina vs Switzerland ranks just behind it, and only because Switzerland are the outsiders on paper. Argentina needed a stoppage-time winner to beat Egypt after a controversial VAR decision and conceding twice in the final quarter of that match.

A Swiss side that has stayed disciplined throughout the tournament will believe it can exploit those weaknesses.

Spain vs Belgium sits third for me. Spain have looked like the most complete side left in the competition since eliminating Portugal, while Belgium’s back line conceded four goals to a USA side that had spent the days before the match dealing with questions over player eligibility and FIFA’s investigation into the issue.

Despite the off-field distraction, the Americans still found plenty of success going forward, exposing defensive problems Belgium cannot afford to repeat.

France vs Morocco is the most lopsided matchup on paper, and it still might be the most emotionally charged. This is a straight rematch of the 2022 semifinal, which France won 2-0, and Morocco will want revenge more than anyone else in this round wants anything.

A number worth knowing

Ticket prices for the Los Angeles quarterfinal collapsed by nearly 60 percent once the USA and Portugal were eliminated from that side of the bracket. It says everything about how much the tournament’s biggest draws still shape demand, even at the World Cup itself.

What actually decides each tie

Kylian Mbappé enters this quarterfinal level with Lionel Messi on the career World Cup goal charts after his winner against Paraguay, and Morocco have not faced a forward line with this much finishing quality yet in this tournament. I think France have enough quality to progress.

Spain’s control of tempo through midfield has been the best in the competition, full stop. Belgium can still hurt teams on the counter, but I think Spain suffocate that threat before it ever develops. Spain to go through.

Norway versus England is the one match on this card I refuse to call with confidence, and I mean that as a compliment to both sides.

Haaland’s club form at Manchester City has carried directly into this tournament, but Bellingham has now dragged England through two knockout rounds almost single handedly. Give me Norway, narrowly, purely because Haaland needs fewer chances than most strikers alive to punish a mistake.

Argentina should have more than enough quality to get past Switzerland, but I would not call it a certainty. Their defense has looked genuinely uncomfortable when teams commit numbers forward, and Switzerland proved against Colombia they do not panic under pressure.

Argentina to win, but this feels closer than the seeding suggests.

Why this weekend matters beyond the bracket

Three of these four ties double as a preview of club football’s next chapter. Mbappé and Bellingham both play their club football at Real Madrid, Haaland leads the line at Manchester City, and however this weekend goes will follow all three of them into next season’s conversations before a ball is even kicked domestically.

This page will be updated as each result lands through Saturday night, with the actual winners locked in and the semifinal picture set.

Four days from now, the World Cup goes from eight teams to four, and at least one of the calls above is going to age badly.

By the end of Saturday night, the semifinal lineup will be complete, and at least one prediction above will almost certainly be wrong. That is exactly what makes the World Cup so unpredictable.