World Cup 2014: All you need to know about the round of 16

The group stages have ended and 16 teams have returned home — the other 16 still in Brazil to slog it out in the knockouts. Here’s a quick look at who will play who and how they got there.  28 JUNE Brazil vs Chile So it’s going to be Brazil against Pele’s favourites for the World Cup - Chile. Brazil got lucky in their opening game against Croatia and then battled Mexico in an entertaining 0-0 draw before turning on the style against Cameroon, beating them 4-1 with Neymar getting two. Chile dispatched Australia comfortable in their opener before shocking Spain and sending them tumbling out of the World Cup. Their dogged approach has garnered admiration and they almost held on against Netherlands before succumbing to the brilliance of Arjen Robben and losing 0-2. [caption id=“attachment_1590461” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Uruguay will face Colombia. AP[/caption] Colombia vs Uruguay: Uruguay’s journey to the last 16 was kickstarted by Luis Suarez’ brilliance against England and ended with his darker side overshadowing their win over Italy in the last group match. It remains to be seen whether they will have their talisman on the pitch for the match against Colombia, who have won all their matches so far (vs Greece, Ivory Coast and Japan). Colombia’s young team has attacked with great intent and rely on James Rodriguez and Jackson Martinez for their goals — so Uruguay better be wary. 29 JUNE Mexico vs Netherlands: The Dutch crushed Spain 5-1 in their opener and are riding high on the form of Robben - who is sending constant reminders to the world that he is the fastest player at the tournament. With Robin van Persie back from suspension, it will be a full strength Netherlands who will take an inventive and organised Mexico — who beat Cameroon and Croatia to reach the last 16. Mexico can get stuck in and will not be pushovers — but The Oranje have momentum on their side, winning three out of three in the group stage. Greece vs Costa Rica: Nobody thought the Greeks would still be alive in the tournament but they clearly shed their ‘boring’ tag when they drove forward in numbers against Ivory Coast in the last group match — winning in the dying seconds courtesy of a Giorgos Samaras penalty. With their backs to the wall, they can be a formidable opposition but are against a team who have beaten Uruguay and Italy and drew with England to reach this stage. Costa Rica have been the surprise package of the tournament so far and there is nothing lucky about that — they’re just playing brilliant football. 30 JUNE France vs Nigeria: If that Nigeria vs Iran 0-0 was anything to go by, then France could have considered this match in the bag. But in their 2-3 loss to Argentina, they showed that they are a team dangerous on their break and when on song, can score. Ahmed Musa is their danger man but it’s a physical side and France can expect a lot of balls in the box and some rough challenges. France on the other hand have been one of the best attacking sides of the World Cup so far. They drew 0-0 against Ecuador but have a balanced side who play a brand of good direct football. With two wins (3-0 vs Honduras and 5-2 vs Switzerland) and a draw, they’ve clearly gotten over their 2010 nightmare. Germany vs Algeria: Germany started their campaign with a 4-0 thumping of Portugal before coming up against a powerful Ghana (2-2) and beating USA 1-0 in a cagey affair. The Algerians have had a more adventurous campaign and are riding high on making history – entering the WC knockouts for the first time after a hard-fought draw against Russia. They were not too bad in their opening defeat to Belgium, leading the dark horses before conceding two late goals and showed some excellent movement in their 4-2 win over Korea. But they’ve hardly met top top opposition in the World Cup so far and Germany are just that. 1st JULY Argentina vs Switzerland: Switzerland’s star-man Xherdan Shaqiri finally got going in their 3-0 win over Honduras and they will hope he starts off from where he left off when they face Argentina. Lionel Messi is in the groove now, scoring two spectacular goals to give his side 1-0 wins over Bosnia-Hercegovina and Iran before curling in a glorious freekick against Nigeria. Slowly and steadily, Argentina are getting the hang of playing in Alejandro Sabella’s 4-3-3 and it would be shocking if they lost to an inconsistent Swiss side (won vs Honduras and Ecuador, lost to France in group stage). Belgium vs USA: The highly rated golden generation of Belgians have looked out of sorts and made slow starts in each of their three wins (2-1 vs Algeria, 1-0 vs Russia and 1-0 vs Korea) — a slightly flattering set of results considering how they’ve played so far. Hopefully the nerves will have gone before they take on USA, who managed to squeeze through to the last 16 despite a loss to Germany in their last group match. But a win over Ghana and draw against Portugal has injected a lot of belief in this USA team — something they’ve been banking on since the start of the tournament.