World Cup knockout stage day one: Time, TV schedule, how to watch

After a group stage that was, even to the casual viewer, a whole lot of fun - only one scoreless draw! Every team scored! VAR aplenty! - the knockout stages get started today, with two games. No (official) Arsenal involvement today - without Torreira’s signature on a piece of paper, that level of involvement waits till Spain plays tomorrow - but there’s a couple pretty great matchups on the bill.

First of all, France take on Argentina, who can only hope that their presence in the knockouts isn’t the fluke it may have seemed a couple days ago. The Argentines haven’t played all that well in this tournament so far, but the fact that they made it into the round of 16 might wake them up a bit and give France more of a game than the French might have thought given Messi & Co’s struggles up to this point.

Then, later in the day, it’s Uruguay taking on Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo hoping to drive the Portuguese on into the quarterfinals and Luis Suarez hoping to set up a last eight clash with the France/Argentina winner next week.

All streams in Spanish, via Telemundo; they are available to US audiences and free.

France v. Argentina
Kazan Arena, Kazan
7AM PT/10AM ET/3PM BT/5PM RT
US TV: Fox
US Stream: Telemundo

Uruguay v. Portugal
Fisht Stadium, Sochi
11AM PT/2PM ET/7PM BT/9PM RT
US TV: Fox
US Stream: Telemundo