The 2026 World Cup hasn't kicked off yet and it's already threatening to be unmissable. Expand the field, spread it across three countries, and suddenly the bracket becomes a minefield of potential classics. Here are five matchups on paper that would stop the world.
Messi's farewell tour sets the agenda
Every conversation about dream games keeps circling back to Argentina. That's not bias — that's just the reality of Lionel Messi's final World Cup combined with the fact that the Albiceleste are the defending champions. Every team that wants the trophy has to go through them, and that makes every potential knockout tie a story worth telling.
The most poetic of the lot? Argentina vs. Portugal. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have shared club football's greatest rivalry for over a decade through El Clásico, yet they have never once met at a World Cup. This is it — the last chance. Both men at the end of their international careers, one already with a World Cup winners' medal and the other still chasing the only thing missing from a five-Ballon d'Or cabinet. A late knockout tie between these two sides would be the single most-watched football match in human history, and that's barely an exaggeration.
Close behind is Argentina vs. Spain, a generational handover dressed up as a football match. Messi against Lamine Yamal — the man widely seen as his heir at Barcelona — would be the kind of symbolic clash that writes itself. Yamal is already operating at a level most players never reach, and Spain are among the genuine favourites to lift the trophy. Their odds will stay short for a reason. Stopping a Messi-led Argentina desperate for one final statement would be the hardest test of their campaign.
The rematch nobody has stopped thinking about
Argentina vs. France needs no introduction. December 18, 2022 in Lusail was the best World Cup Final ever played — possibly the best match ever played, full stop. Three goals down, Mbappé dragged France back to 3-3. Argentina won on penalties. France haven't forgotten it for a single day since.
Mbappé's squad is deeper and more dangerous than it was four years ago, and the hunger for redemption is a genuine tactical factor, not a narrative device. If these two sides meet in the knockout rounds, the odds market will be a coin flip and the match itself could surpass what happened in Qatar. That's a high bar. They might clear it.
Then there's Brazil vs. Argentina — the one that hasn't happened at a World Cup since 1990. The bracket structure means the earliest possible meeting is the quarter-finals. They're not the bookmakers' top picks to both advance that far, but the fixture transcends odds. If it happens, it happens in front of a North American crowd that will have no idea which continent it just got transported to.
And finally, France vs. Spain — which at this point feels less like a dream and more like an inevitability. Spain beat France in the Euro 2024 semi-final. Spain beat France in the Nations League semi-final. Two meetings, two Spanish wins, both tight, both exceptional. Mbappé vs. Yamal has quietly become the sport's most compelling individual duel right now, and a World Cup Final between these two nations in July would be the perfect arena for the next chapter. Spain's short-price status with most books reflects exactly that — they're the team everyone expects to be there at the end.
- Brazil vs. Argentina — the rivalry that hasn't hit a World Cup stage since Italia 90
- Argentina vs. Portugal — Messi vs. Ronaldo, finally, at the only tournament that matters
- Argentina vs. Spain — Messi vs. Yamal, old guard vs. new, Barcelona past vs. Barcelona future
- Argentina vs. France — the Qatar Final rematch, with Mbappé still owed a debt
- France vs. Spain — two dominant nations on a collision course, Mbappé vs. Yamal round three
Whether any of these actually materialise depends on 48 nations navigating seven rounds of football without blowing up the bracket. History says at least one of them happens. History also says something completely unexpected will overshadow all of it.
