Football news - #english

Germany are out, Morocco dumped the Netherlands, and a fixed bracket means Brazil vs Norway and Paraguay vs France are locked into the road to the MetLife final on July 19.

Lionel Messi scored six times in Group J, including a hat-trick against Algeria, to reach 19 career World Cup goals and lift defending champions Argentina to second in the post-group-stage power rankings.

ESPN's post-group-stage panel rank France No. 1 with 16 of 20 first-place votes after a perfect group and a 3-0 win over Sweden, with Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise driving the favourites.

Cristiano Ronaldo's 6th-minute opener in Portugal's 5-0 rout of Uzbekistan made him the first player ever to score at six different World Cups, breaking clear of Lionel Messi.