After all the tightness of the final group games, the round of 16 felt liberated from dependence on the outcome of matches being played elsewhere. And yet, they offered nothing like the excitement. The knockout games were divided into two camps — quasi-exhibition games where one side ended up romping away with the ticket to the next round, and hard-fought slogs that were long on tension but very low on decent soccer. What the games lacked overall in sporting entertainment, though, they made up for in terms of several goals of extraordinary quality.

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