World Cup Semi-Finals Predictions!

Whatever happens between now and Sunday night, we're set to have a very interesting World Cup winning team. The mighty Brazil have been eliminated as well as Uruguay meaning we are guaranteed a European champion and a relatively rare one too given that none of the remaining teams have won the tournament more than once, if at all.

At Superbru, the quarter-finals round was pretty average for me as I managed to correctly guess the two outcomes that were picked by a majority and failed to predict the two that were picked by a minority. I was close with both my France and England picks but since I didn't manage an exact, I'm eager to nail one of these two semi-final predictions!

Before we get into my picks, don't forget to join the Premier League Predictor game now that it's live and ready for you to set up your pools! The Premier League game will be using the same scoring format as this World Cup predictor has and you can even transfer your pool and it's members straight across. I can't wait for the season to start and will be posting my predictions for each round in an article as I have been for this tournament. It would be great to have as many of you as possible trying (and likely succeeding) to beat me.



On to my predictions then and here's a reminder of the semi-finals taking place (as if you needed it).

France vs. Belgium

You have to applaud Belgium for that performance against Brazil and the fact they've knocked out my tournament favourites means I've no doubt that they are good enough to go on and win this World Cup. France are of course also in with a shot but since Uruguay were so disappointing in that quarter-final I'm still a little unsure of how the French will get on when really challenged. I see this being a very tight game and expect both teams to score but I'm leaning towards a Belgium win. Eden Hazard was excellent against Brazil and if Martinez plays Kevin De Bruyne in the slightly more advanced role we saw in the quarter-final then I can't see France coping with that pair and Romelu Lukaku.

It's going to be a tricky decision for me when picking defenders in the fantasy and 5-a-side fantasy games we also run at Superbru as I'm not sure any of the semi-finalists will be keeping a clean sheet! Therefore it comes down to who has the better offence and players capable of producing that moment of magic to win a huge game and for me it's Belgium who are superior in that department. Prediction: France 1-2 Belgium

Croatia vs. England

It was so refreshing to see England actually win a knockout game at a major tournament in the comfortable fashion many expect us too. I thought the Three Lions were excellent against Sweden and will now never have a better chance than this to reach a World Cup final. However, Croatia will be thinking exactly the same and with their talented squad coming through two penalty shootouts there's no doubt they are a resilient side that will push England further than Colombia or Sweden did.

Could it be yet another shootout for Croatia? Quite possibly. I really don't see there being much between these two. England have been outstanding at set-pieces but the other reason they've been doing well in this tournament is the control of the ball they've had in midfield against the likes of Sweden. That won't be the case here as the midfield battle will be extremely competitive against Modric and Rakitic. That said, I was more impressed with Croatia in the group stage than I have been in the knockouts and if I have to pick a winner I'm siding with England be it in 90 minutes or ET. As it stands, I'm going with a 2-1 win that will set up one of the most exciting days of my life seeing England in a World Cup final but if I get the Belgium game wrong I may predict penalties in order to try and rescue my position on pool leaderboards! Prediction: Croatia 1-2 England