+ Brazil–Japan, Monday 29 June, 7:00 PM
Houston Stadium, Houston, Texas
TV4/P4 Radio Sport
+ Neymar a nightmare for Japan
Neymar made a comeback for Brazil after 981 days in the final group match against Scotland, a 3–0 victory.
Could he be in the starting line-up now?
In that case, Japan will be trembling. The injury-plagued 34-year-old superstar, Brazil's all-time leading scorer for the men's national team with 79 goals, loves playing against Japan. It is the national team he has scored the most goals against - nine, according to Fifa.com.
The highlight came in an international match in 2014 when he scored all four goals as Brazil won 4–0.
Japan, second in Sweden's group, beat Brazil 3–2 in an international match in October last year.
+ Germany–Paraguay, Monday 29 June, 10:30 PM
SVT/P4 Radio Sport
Boston Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts
+ The super goal scorer's unlikely World Cup journey
Deniz Undav is Germany's top scorer and sits sixth in the scoring charts - despite not having started a match yet. Germany's "super sub" has scored three goals and provided two assists so far in 86 minutes of play (plus added time).
The 29-year-old, who is making his World Cup debut, scored both goals as Germany secured group victory in their second match, 2-1 against Ivory Coast, and reached the World Cup knockout stage for the first time since 2014. Undav made his championship debut in the European Championship two years ago when he only got six minutes of playing time.
Paraguay, who advanced as third in the group, have kept a clean sheet in their final two group-stage matches at the World Cup.
The winner of this match will face Sweden or France in the round of 16.
+ Netherlands–Morocco, Tuesday 30 June, 3:00 a.m.
SVT/P4 Radio Sport
Monterrey Stadium, Monterrey, Mexico
+ The “bottom scraper” could bring down the Netherlands
This meeting could arouse heated emotions as the Netherlands has a large population with Moroccan roots, just over 400,000 people.
Morocco's World Cup squad includes three players born in the Netherlands - Sofyan Amrabat, Noussair Mazraoui and Anass Salah-Eddine. But several others have Dutch connections, such as top scorer Ismael Saibari, with three goals, who has played for PSV Eindhoven since 2020.
Former midfield star Rafael van der Vaart, part of the 2010 World Cup silver-medal team, is now a television expert and made headlines this spring when he said:
"I don't want to be harsh, but all Moroccans who are not good enough to play for the Netherlands switch to the Moroccan national team. The only one I wish had chosen our national team earlier is Hakim Ziyech."
Both Morocco, who advanced to the bronze medal match at the 2022 World Cup, and the Netherlands won two and drew one match in the group stage. The Netherlands crushed Sweden 5–1.
