Jason Pine provides all you need to know about this morning's World Cup games.

What happened overnight?

The round-of-16 kicked off with two simply superb games of football.

First, France beat Argentina 4-3 in a thrilling encounter in Kazan to send the two-time champions home.

Portugal and Uruguay then engaged in an absolutely absorbing arm-wrestle in Sochi, with the South Americans prevailing 2-1.

Heroes

Kylian Mbappe wasn't born until five months after his current national coach Didier Deschamps and France's World Cup winning team of 1998 paraded the trophy down the Champs Elysees.

Today he showed why he is the fresh new face of French football, a second-half brace propelling his nation into the last eight as he became the first teenager since Pele in 1958 to score twice in a World Cup match.

It's no longer enough to say Mbappe, whose blistering pace also earned the penalty from which France opened the scoring, has potential; he is more than delivering on football's biggest stage.

And Edison Cavani – who plays with Mbappe at Paris St-Germain – has often been upstaged by Luis Suarez in Uruguay's attack, but today he produced two goals of thehighest calibre to send his side into the last eight, before limping off through injury with 20 minutes to go.

France's Kylian Mbappe, left, celebrates with team mate Lucas Hernandez. Photo / AP Photo

Villains

Messi, gone. Ronaldo, gone.

Despite some eye-catching moments in the last fortnight, the planet's two best players of the past decade have been unable to propel their football-mad nations beyond the first knockout stage at this World Cup.

And there's no guarantee either will have the chance to do so again.

Stat chat

There were ten goals scored today, the most on a day of knockout football at the World Cup since 17 June 1970, when two semi-finals produced 11 goals.

This is the first time Argentina have scored three goals in a competitive match and lost.

France's opener was the first goal Argentina had conceded from a penalty in a World Cup knockout game since 1998, when Alan Shearer scored against them for England.

There were eight shots on target in the Argentina vs. France game with seven resulting in goals.

Cristiano Ronaldo had 24 touches in the first half for Portugal, but none of them was inside Uruguay's penalty area.

Portugal's goal was the first Uruguay had conceded in 597 minutes of football, dating back to their 2-1 loss to Austria in November.

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo helps injured Uruguay's Edinson Cavani. Photo / AP Photo

They said what?

French striker Kylian Mbappe: "It's flattering to be the second teenager to score twice in a World Cup match after Pele but let's put things in context. Pele is another category."

Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli: "This is very painful, especially because the players have made a huge effort. It was a very difficult game but we have not achieved our goal here in Russia. I'm sad, I'm frustrated – I think that's quite normal."

Tennis star Andy Murray (at a Wimbledon press conference): "I can't believe I'm missing this match. What's the score? 3-2? Shall we just go and watch?"

Did you know?

Uruguay has a population of just 3.44 million people, over 1.2 million less than New Zealand. They seem to do OK at football, though.

What's next?

There are two more round-of-16 matches tomorrow morning.

At 2am (NZT), hosts Russia face a massive task to stay in the tournament when they meet 2010 winners Spain.

At 6am, the impressive Croatia – who won all three of their pool games – play Denmark.

So, after today's results...

Friday 6th July, 17:00
Uruguay vs France 🇺🇾🇫🇷
Nizhny Novgorod #URUFRA pic.twitter.com/8RDTOIEmcE

— FIFA World Cup 🏆 (@FIFAWorldCup) June 30, 2018