Danny Murphy
Former England midfielder on BBC One

Argentina supporters are absolutely incredible and they started early this morning. There are some wonderfully gifted footballers on the pitch and I'm really looking forward to it.

Sharn: Gotta love the French national anthem....makes me almost wish I was French!

Jordan: Just fancy Argentina to do this. Showed the required response to Croatia loss in beating Nigeria. France on the other hand have been pretty average in all their games so far

Nick: They don’t come any bigger than France and Argentina.

Image source, Reuters

Olivier Giroud clatters over Argentine defender Nicolas Tagliafico within 15 seconds.

Image source, Reuters

The World Cup knockout stages are under way.

Image source, Reuters

A reminder of the line-ups.

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Image source, .

France and Argentina face each other for the 12th time. The South Americans hold the upper hand with six wins to two, keeping a clean sheet in eight of their previous 11 encounters.

However, this is the first time these sides have met in the knockout stage of a World Cup.

They have only played twice in the last 32 years, in friendlies in 2007 and 2009, both won by Argentina.

The fixture is the first between two previous world champions at this World Cup.

Oh, oh - look who's here again...

Image source, Reuters

Lionel Messi is looking more relaxed, as he says hello to the French players. No repeat of that picture where it looked like he almost had a migraine before the Croatia game.

The Argentina national anthem is just called 'Argentine National Anthem'. Not quite as iconic but there is a lot of noise.

Argentina fans are literally bouncing as it's played. Huge roars from the Kazan crown.

La Marseillaise - a belting tune. Observation from the camera running down the players - N'Golo Kante really is short, isn't he?

Football statisticians Gracenote Sports believe France have a 7% chance of winning the World Cup, while Argentina's prospects stand at 6%.

Simon Gleave, head of analysis at Gracenote Sports, said: "After getting a tougher than average set of group opponents, France's chance of winning the World Cup increased as they won their first two matches.

"Argentina came very close to being eliminated from the World Cup at the group phase and this is illustrated in the change in their chance of winning the competition."

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The players come out onto the pitch. What a tie to start off the knockout stages.

Patrick Jennings
BBC Sport in Kazan

Spine-tingly levels of expectation and excitement here in Kazan. One side of the ground is glimmering sunglasses, the rest covered in shade. But there are light blue and white stripes every which way you look.

But is he the man picking the team? There have been rumours of player power, Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano etc.

You can watch the game in virtual reality today.

Click here for more info.

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France only faced five shots on target in their three group games. The only goal they let in was a penalty from Australia's Mile Jedinak.

It is the first time they have not conceded a goal from open play at a World Cup group stage since 1998, a tournament they went on to win.

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If the Argentina players did have a say in team selection and tactics after their talks with coach Jorge Sampaoli, then one of the decisions they made was to go back to playing with a back four.

I still don't think they are very good defensively - but they are trying to keep things simple and as tight as possible, and then look for a bit of genius from Lionel Messi - who did exactly that against Nigeria.

While Argentina only just made it to the last 16, France got out of their group without any trouble whatsoever.

Les Bleus have not played anywhere near to their potential yet, and the disjointed performance in their draw with Denmark was not helped by the changes made by boss Didier Deschamps.

I still think France look far better with Olivier Giroud up front and with Paul Pogba in a deeper role alongside N'Golo Kante, rather than two dedicated defensive midfielders.

Sooner or later, I think we are going to see the France players put in a big performance. If they produce it in Kazan, they will win.

Lawro's prediction: 2-1 to France

Check out the rest of Lawro's predictions here.

"I am not fighting for records. What is important is we are all focused on our preparations," said Deschamps, who captained France to 1998 World Cup glory.

"We have a young team, we will try to be competitive and do our utmost for everything to go well."

Alan Shearer
Former Newcastle striker on BBC One

In the previous games, Messi was picking up the ball deeper than he would've liked but against Nigeria he pushed forward more and his goal was absolutely brilliant. He has to be the man because we know they are struggling behind him.