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The moment of truth has arrived as teams gear up for the football World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar.
On paper, the best-eight teams on show are in the fray for semi-final spots: Croatia v Brazil, Netherlands v Argentina, Morocco v Portugal and England v France.
The England-France tie looks especially mouth-watering: France are ranked fourth in the world, one place above England.
Didier Deschamps' side have done better than they did at their last major tournament - the delayed 2020 European Championship - where they lost to Switzerland on penalties in the last-16.
Their attack has now become more potent with the inclusion of Kylian Mbappe. He leads the race for the Golden Boot with five goals - two more than a host of other players including Lionel Messi.
Interestingly, England and France have not met in the knockout rounds of a major tournament before.
They have played each other 31 times, with England winning 17 to France's nine. The last time they met was in a friendly in June 2017, when France won 3-2.
The rising team appear to be Brazil, who do not lack confidence when it comes to dictating their own football fortunes. Their form at this World Cup is sky-high and it is clear to see why, especially after their 4-1 win over South Korea in the last-16.
Talisman Neymar showed that he had recovered from an ankle injury sustained in their opening win against Serbia. "Neymardependencia" is a term used frequently as Brazil seek a sixth World Cup title.
"If Neymar plays, it's because he is in full health and ready to start, to play from the beginning and the entire game with no limitations," Brazil coach Tite said of his striker.
"My preference is always to play my best players from the start."
Tite also admitted that the "physical demand is ever increasing, the time is short, it's a cumulative effect of games and sometimes you don't have the ideal recovery time on your hands".
"I don't really know what to say other than mentally, the Cup is very demanding. It drains you," he said.
"The intensity of the matches, the preparation - they are components of analysis that we have to delve deeper into but they are all considerable."
Brazil are probably Singaporeans' favourites to lift the trophy. They have progressed from their last seven Round of 16 matches at the World Cup.
Brazil failed to win in normal time only once during this run, progressing via penalties against Chile in 2014.
They were last eliminated at this stage in 1990 by Argentina.
Crucially, there is belief in the manager. There were times in the past when the spotlight was on the manager to get the best out of the country's most technically-gifted players. But there is no such scrutiny this time.
Former Singapore coach Jita Singh, who is in Qatar to watch the World Cup matches, said: "What we have seen during the qualifying campaign is the benefit of a complete cycle. Going into the last World Cup, Tite had less than two years to prepare the team.
"This time, he had the complete cycle heading into the World Cup and it has given him much more time to work on the team."
Such are Brazil's wealth of options, you really have to nit-pick to find areas of weakness.
There are one or two question marks over the make-up of the defence.
Centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes has performed well for Arsenal but was left out of Brazil's World Cup squad.
Tite has been bold and decisive in his selections. He has trained himself well to block out criticism.
"Courage is the ability to face fear" is a quote from Nelson Mandela that he always uses to point out Brazil's versatility.
There is unity and belief in this Brazil squad. They have serious Cup-winning quality.
It is now up to the players to show that they are perfectly capable of delivering the goods when it counts.
tabla@sph.com.sg
Suresh Nair is a former sports journalist with The New Paper. He is also a qualified international coach and referee instructor.
