World Cup 2018 Knockout Stage Bracket, Schedule for Round of 16 Matches

There it is. After an immensely entertaining opening two weeks, the Round of 16 matchups were finalized when Belgium outlasted England 1-0 in the final meaningful match of the group play stage on Thursday.

The biggest shocker of the Round of 16 is, of course, Germany's stunning absence. The typically dominant side sealed its fate with a 2-0 loss to South Korea on Tuesday, continuing a trend of terrible performances from defending World Cup champions.

"This is historic. I am sure this will create some public uproar in Germany," said Germany manager Joachim Low, according to the BBC.

Low added: "At this tournament, we didn't deserve to win again or move to the round of 16. We were eliminated not because we didn't want to win but we never had the chance to take a lead at any point—we were always lagging behind, trying to keep up."

For the squads that did advance, there are certainly some interesting matchups. Powerhouses France and Argentina will face-off to get things going on Saturday morning (eastern time), while the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal squad will face Uruguay later in the day.

Later, Mexico will look to continue a solid World Cup thus far by taking down favorites Brazil. They will be coming off a terrible performance in which they lost 3-0 to Sweden in a critical match, however, which nearly knocked them out of the tournament. El Tri was only saved by Germany's stunning loss to South Korea.

"Mediocre people who have never accomplished anything in their lives would say that we advanced due to a miracle," Mexican captain Rafa Marquez wrote on Instagram, via ESPN. "Those of us who have done something important in our lives would say that our first objective was met, and now we are going to work, to continue to improve to reach our next goal, proposal or objective!"

Some observers seem to the think things are shaping up to be far easier for one side of the bracket. One side has France, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium and Japan. On its surface, that is the more difficult side of the bracket. The other half will feature Spain, Russia, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Colombia and England.

Here's the bracket, via Fox Sports.

And here's the schedule:

Saturday, June 30

- France vs. Argentina, 10 a.m. ET, televised on Fox

- Uruguay vs. Portugal, 2 p.m. ET, televised on Fox

Sunday, July 1

- Spain vs. Russia, 10 a.m. ET, televised on Fox

- Croatia vs. Denmark, 2 p.m. ET, televised on Fox

Monday, July 2

- Brazil vs. Mexico, 10 a.m. ET, televised on Fox Sports 1

-Belgium vs. Japan, 2 p.m. ET, televised on Fox

Tuesday, July 3

- Sweden vs. Switzerland, 10 a.m. ET, televised on Fox Sports 1

- Colombia vs. England, 2 p.m. ET, televised on Fox