World Cup 2018 Round of 16: Early Match Predictions, Odds for Upcoming Bracket

The knockout phase of the 2018 FIFA World Cup begins on Saturday as the competition starts to hot up in Russia.

Only 16 teams now remain and all will harbour hopes of being crowned world champions after making it through the group stages.

Here's a look at the upcoming bracket, followed by early predictions and odds for the last 16.

Last 16 Predictions

France 2-0 Argentina

Uruguay 1-0 Portugal

Spain 2-1 Russia

Croatia 2-0 Denmark

Brazil 3-1 Mexico

Belgium 2-0 Japan

Sweden 1-0 Switzerland

Colombia 1-2 England

Early Last-16 Odds

France (27-20), Draw (2-1), Argentina (12-5)

Uruguay (7-4), Draw (2-1), Portugal (19-10)

Spain (20-33), Draw (14-5), Russia (11-2)

Croatia (5-6), Draw (9-4), Denmark (4-1)

Brazil (1-2), Draw (63-20), Mexico (6-1)

Sweden (41-20), Draw (2-1), Switzerland (31-20)

All odds courtesy of OddsShark.

France and Argentina is the first match of the knockout phase and will see one of the stronger teams in the tournament depart.

Argentina's hopes seem to rest on the shoulders of Lionel Messi, and he was on target against Nigeria as La Albiceleste shrugged off a slow start to make it through the group stages.

However, Jorge Sampaoli's side will need to improve if Messi is to add to his tally in this competition, according to Goal's Ben Hayward:

France have a squad packed full of stars but despite the presence of players such as Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe they are yet to hit top form.

Robbie Dunne of AS offered his view of France:

Les Bleus look the stronger team but they will need to be wary of the huge threat offered by Messi if they are to make it to the quarter-finals.

Hosts Russia remain in the competition but they must beat Spain if they are to continue. Russia opened with two wins but a 3-0 defeat to Uruguay in their final group game has tempered expectations.

Russia have some talented attacking players and Denis Cheryshev, Aleksandr Golovin and Artem Dzyuba could cause a Spain defence which has looked vulnerable problems.

Golovin has been particularly influential, as shown by football analyst David O'Brien:

Spain have a quality squad but have been forced to cope with the dismissal of manager Julen Lopetegui two days before the start of the World Cup.

Fernando Hierro has taken over but Spain have looked vulnerable. They conceded three goals to Portugal, only narrowly beat Iran and were heading for defeat to Morocco until a late Iago Aspas goal rescued a point.

Forward Marco Asensio offered an honest assessment of their campaign:

Spain will be expected to beat Russia but they will need to improve from their showing against Morocco if they are to avoid a shock exit.