On a near-cloudless afternoon by the Kazanka River, Messi and his Argentine teammates were overrun and outmaneuvered here by a French team full of skill, speed, youth and, for the first time in this tournament, goals.

Final score: 4-3 for France.

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Several hours later, by the Black Sea, Ronaldo and his Portuguese teammates were finished off in Sochi by Edinson Cavani, who scored twice, and by a resolute Uruguayan defense.

Final score: 2-1 for Uruguay.

France and Uruguay will face each other in the quarterfinals on Friday, while Messi and Ronaldo, the two leading men of this era, face a decision about their future with their national teams.

They have won national prizes: Argentina and Messi won Olympic gold in 2008; Portugal and Ronaldo won the European Championship by surprise in 2016.

But the biggest prize keeps going to others, perhaps even to France or Uruguay this year.

In a World Cup in which minor miracles have become routine in the final minutes, Argentina, in the first game of the day, never stopped pushing for the equalizer. But France and its fast-emerging superstar, 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé, who scored twice and drew a penalty to create a third goal, had put the Argentines in too deep a hole by then, roaring back from a 2-1 deficit early in the second half.