Will the German discipline take them to the final? Will Brazil be able to overcome the loss of Neymar Jr.? Will Argentina move its game to the next level for the semi-final? Or would the Dutch shrug off a bad day at work to reach the final again and get a shot at redemption?
Here's what your favourite Hollywood celebrities have been up to.
France won its first gold medal of the Rio Games in eventing on Tuesday in a dramatic show jumping final, rising two places from the cross country phase after riders from Australia and New Zealand knocked rails down.
Jamaican track star Usain Bolt is considering retiring after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But any plans of going out to grass at the age of 30 will come after three more years of domination that could include a pop at the Commonwealth Games next year and another shot at bettering his own 200m world record.
Focused on winning their first ever Olympic medal, the Indian archers will skip the much-awaited opening ceremony of the Rio Games on Friday.
The risk of Zika virus infections at the Olympic Games is both low and manageable, the chief of the World Health Organisation said on Friday, a week before the event kicks off in Rio de Janeiro. Nearly half a million people are expected to visit for the Games, many from the United States. Worries about security, the Zika virus and an economic crisis could deter travelers, with just under a third of event tickets as yet unsold. Brazil has been hardest hit by the disease outbreak, and many physicians, competitors and potential visitors have expressed fears the Olympics could serve as a catalyst to spread the virus globally.
As Brazil gears up to host the FIFA World Cup 2014 starting on June 12, lets take a closer look at the biggest football tournament.
Tax auditors plan to down tools every Tuesday and Thursday until the government issues a decree to raise their wages.
With just 500 days to go until the 2014 World Cup kicks off in Brazil, soccer's world governing body FIFA warned that the hosts cannot afford any further delays in getting their venues ready.
Official White House photographers offer glimpses into the life of the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
Non-profit sports foundation Olympic Gold Quest has chalked out plans to extend its support to 40 athletes by this year-end and help them train for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, according to its chief executive officer Viren Rasquinha.
Brazil took another step towards recovering their once famous invincibility when Paulinho scored with a late header to seal a 2-1 win over Uruguay and take the hosts into the Confederations Cup final.
The Union cabinet on Friday gave its "full mandate" to the negotiating team led by Environment Minister Jayanti Natarajan to put forth India's arguments on sustainable development at the meet.
Japan has extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas until the end of May as the country battles a surge in COVID-19 cases
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has been taken to hospital during a visit to Brazil to assess progress for the next year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.
Romanian weightlifter Gabriel Sincraian and Russian boxer Misha Aloian have been stripped of their 2016 Olympic medals after failing doping tests at the Games, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said.
Manyonga has been provisionally suspended for anti-doping whereabouts failures
In the wake of India's biggest ever medal haul of six in its Olympic Games history at London, chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on Thursday exuded confidence that the number would be bettered four years later in Rio de Janeiro.
From ordinary police on the beat to the shadows of Britain's security establishment, the sighs of relief are almost audible.
Brazil presented the official poster for the 2014 World Cup at a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, unveiling bright colors and fluid patterns that evoke the tropical nation's rich flora and fauna.
India and China on Thursday agreed to step up their defence and security dialogue and work to take steps to ensure that the two countries achieve a $100 billion (about Rs 5,60,000 cr) trade target by 2015.
Gigi Hadid's latest cover is clearly not for the faint hearted.
American Kristin Armstrong became the first cyclist to win the same road event at three different Olympic Games on Wednesday. Britain's surprise packet Joseph Clarke won the Canoe gold in the K-1 slalom course on Wednesday.
Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt has set his sights on defending his three titles at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro rather than switching to another event, the six-time gold medallist said.
Germany's canoe slalom coach Stefan Henze is fighting for his life after sustaining serious head injuries in a car crash earlier on Friday, the German Olympic team (DOSB) said. Henze was seriously injured while returning with a taxi to the Olympic village and has undergone emergency surgery, the team said. "According to the doctors his head injuries are life-threatening," the DOSB said in a statement.
Thangavelu had won the Rio Paralympics T-42 high jump gold by clearing 1.89m.
The Australian Open champion never faced a break point and used her hard and accurate serve to dispatch Gauff.
In India traffic comes to a virtual standstill whenever there is 'VVIP movement'. At the Rio+20 Conference there were hundreds of world leaders, but no security agency seemed to hassle the locals, notes B S Prakash.
Leading medal hope in shooting, army's Jitu Rai, qualified for the men's 10 m air pistol by finishing sixth out of 46 competitors in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. The other Indian in the fray Gurpreet Singh crashed out finishing 20th with a score of 576.
Swiebodzin, a Polish town, has officially unveiled the world's largest Jesus statue -- which surpasses the Christ the Redeemer, the famous Christ sculpture in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro -- with a mass attended by thousands in what is hoped to become a hot tourist destination.
The United States clawed back to the top of the Olympic medal table at the London Games, waving goodbye to Michael Phelps its greatest ever medal producer, and saying hello to a brigade of young newcomers who will carry the torch onto Rio.
Brazilian Minister of Sports George Hilton says everything is on track for the 2016 Rio Games.
Lionel Messi passed Javier Mascherano as Argentina's most capped international on Monday and scored twice as they beat Bolivia 4-1 to set up a Copa America quarter-final against Ecuador.
After striving to qualify for the 400 metres at the London Olympics for six years, Oscar Pistorius believes he will now be better placed to run at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.
Over a hundred world leaders including the Indian prime minister will be at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday left for a eight-day tour of Mexico and Brazil to attend the G-20 and Rio+20 summits.
The island city of Indonesia serves as a grim reminder of the urban squalor that awaits most Asian cities.
'Every slide in the power point presentation had a graph with years like 2006, 2008, 2010 on the X axis... Most lines seemed to lie inert horizontally and many seemed to dip despondently, except the red line for China which seemed to rise triumphantly in each slide...' B S Prakash attends the World Economic Forum's Latin American version.
Bach said Tokyo was 'the best-prepared Olympic city,' in remarks at the start of a three-day virtual IOC session.
Iranian cyclist Sarafraz Bahman Golbarnezhad has died after crashing in the C4-5 event at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, the first such death at the Games since they began in 1960, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has said.