Alexi Lalas’ World Cup Power Rankings: Who’s The Strongest Quarterfinalist?

The World Cup quarterfinals stage is set and kicks off on Thursday with France vs. Morocco. Despite a thrilling road to this point of the tournament, some teams unexpectedly found their way into the bracket of eight remaining teams. The bracket has sneaky good teams and confident squads who are bound to make a run to the final on July 19. So these are my World Cup quarterfinals power rankings. And remember: These are my rankings. If you don’t like them, get your own. Odds are as of Thursday morning. Odds To Win: +3300 Coming in at eight is the team we just saw beat Colombia, and that’s going to be Switzerland. Switzerland is sneaky good, but I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with the Swiss at No. 8. Odds To Win: +3000 Our friends Belgium, who just kicked our ass, come in at No. 7. Odds To Win: +2700 This is a hard one, but I’m putting Morocco at six. Morocco could certainly be high, but I’m going to put it at six. I could’ve probably put Morocco ahead of Spain. Ed. Note: Morocco was sent home after losing to France, 2-0, on Thursday. Odds To Win: +360 This is probably the most controversial one: Spain at No. 5. I think a lot of people would put Spain higher. Odds To Win: +460 This one hurts me the most, especially after that game, where they went down to the Azteca and beat Mexico in a historic win. It’s coming in at 4, and it’s got to feel confident going forward. Odds To Win: +1400 Norway was a lot of people’s “dark horse,” and they have lived up to that and more in the sense that they are not a dark horse anymore. I still think that, even with what Lionel Messi is doing right now, what Erling Haaland is doing is as good, and I could even make arguments that it’s better given the supporting cast. Not a lack of supporting cast, because that’s disrespectful to the rest of the Norway players, but he’s not playing on a team as good as Argentina. Odds To Win: + 400 Speaking of Argentina, they’re still at 2. They have had two games now that, while they have been exciting, that’s two games that they’ve struggled with and had to suffer, which is still surprising that they came out on the winning end. Credit to them. Still, I’m being a little bit generous with Argentina. Argentina has been a little shaky. Odds To Win: +180 Is there really any other choice at this point? Kylian Mbappé, Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembélé. I don’t need to say any more than that.