The 2026 World Cup hasn't kicked off yet and it's already setting up to be unlike anything we've seen. Expanded field, three host nations, and a bracket that — if football gods are cooperating — could produce knockout matches that will be talked about for generations.
Here are the five matchups that would make the tournament genuinely unforgettable.
Messi's farewell tour has a cast of worthy opponents
Start with the obvious one. Argentina vs. France is a rematch of the finest World Cup Final in modern memory — December 18, 2022, a match that had no business being that good. Three goals from Mbappé in the second half. A Messi masterclass. Penalties. Argentina won, France were left hollow. Mbappé has been building toward revenge ever since, and the France squad surrounding him now is built for exactly this kind of moment. If they meet again in the knockout rounds, the odds on both sides will be genuinely hard to call.
Argentina vs. Portugal is the one that writes itself in a way nothing else can. Messi and Ronaldo — the two players who defined world football for the better part of two decades — have never shared a World Cup pitch. El Clásico gave us the club version many times. But a knockout meeting in their final tournament, with Ronaldo still chasing the one trophy that's eluded him? That's not just a football match. That's a closing chapter for an entire era of the sport.
Argentina vs. Spain carries a different kind of weight. This is Messi facing Lamine Yamal — the 17-year-old who's already being fitted for the crown at Barcelona. Spain are among the genuine title favourites, and their combination play under Luis de la Fuente has been suffocating. Messi's Argentina trying to make one last run into that machine would be a legitimate test of both sides, not a sentimental exercise.
The match the rest of the world is building toward
France vs. Spain might be the final the neutrals deserve most. Spain beat France in the Euro 2024 semi-final. Spain beat France again in last year's Nations League semi-final. Two enormous games, two Spanish wins. France haven't forgotten either result, and the rivalry between Mbappé and Yamal has become the defining individual duel of this generation — two El Clásico opponents now fighting it out on the international stage. A World Cup Final between these two wouldn't just be a great match. It would be the natural conclusion to everything that's been building since the summer of 2024.
And then there's Brazil vs. Argentina. The biggest rivalry in the sport. They haven't met at a World Cup since 1990 — 36 years and counting. The bracket structure means the earliest they could collide is the quarter-finals, and neither side is currently sitting at the very top of the odds board. But this tournament has 48 teams and a chaotic new format. Stranger things have happened. A Messi vs. Brazil knockout tie, or better yet a Final, would be the kind of match that makes people stop what they're doing anywhere in the world.
The 2026 World Cup doesn't need to deliver all five. One or two of these would be enough to make it the most-watched tournament in history. The bracket will take care of the rest.
