2026 World Cup Predictor: Day 13

This continues to be the World Cup of star players, as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland all did the business once again yesterday!

Today, much of the focus will be on Cristiano Ronaldo in the opening match of Day 13 as Portugal look to bounce back from a disappointing draw in Round 1.

Here's your overview of Day 12, and a look ahead to today's Day 13 action.

🇦🇷 Argentina 2-0 Austria 🇦🇹

Outcome predicted by 96% of users | Scoreline predicted by 22.7% of users

After putting an early penalty wide of the goal to remind us all that he's human, Lionel Messi once again stole the show for Argentina with a brace in this game. That means Messi has now scored all 5 of Argentina's goals in this tournament so far.

I didn't think Austria were bad - their gegenpress was really effective at times - but Argentina defended well and Ralf Rangnick is probably lacking a quality centre forward to really capitalise on chances in the way that we saw other forwards do in each of yesterday's matches.

Messi went clear as the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup history in this game as those of you on the Superbru Football app will have already seen. If you aren't already using the app but enjoy the conversation on these articles, it's the place to go for more immediate reaction to results as we regularly post graphics on there.

🇫🇷 France 3-0 Iraq 🇮🇶

Outcome predicted by 99.2% of users | Scoreline predicted by 31.4% of users

This was always going to be a question of how many goals France would win by, but Iraq did reasonably well defensively to keep it to three. I decided to risk a wild 6-0 prediction just because it's more fun than hoping for 2 or 3, but much of the 'fun' of this match was erased by a very long half time interval due to thunderstorms in the Philadelphia area.

I'm surprised it took this long for a match to be disrupted as the weather was a real problem throughout last summer's Club World Cup. A proper test of stamina for those of us staying up late to watch these games!

🇳🇴 Norway 3-2 Senegal 🇸🇳

Outcome predicted by 57% of users | Scoreline predicted by 3.7% of users

I was also expecting this match to be disrupted by the weather but thankfully it wasn't and it was quite a good watch. That said, I was very disappointed in Senegal having backed them to win. Kalidou Koulibaly had an awful night in the centre of defence and was at fault for at least two of the goals, and while I said the last time that I was writing about Norway that their forwards would force opposition errors, these did feel particularly avoidable.

A great result for Norway, though, and some of their play was fantastic to watch. Their supporters are obviously also good value and the post-match rowing that they and the team did together was cool. With both Norway and France now through ahead of a Round 3 game to decide who tops the group, that final group match could be entertaining with both sides throwing caution to the wind.

🇯🇴 Jordan 1-2 Algeria 🇩🇿

Outcome predicted by 64.6% of users | Scoreline predicted by 22.5% of users

Group J underdogs Jordan have now ultimately been eliminated, but this was another respectable display from the World Cup debutants. The fact that they've still got Argentina to play is a bit scary, but it's likely Lionel Messi will be rested for at least some of that game in my opinion.

Jordan went ahead through quite an amusing completely accidental assist from Mousa Tamari, but Algeria did well to respond in the second half and pick up a deserved victory.

The Insights Preview that Superbru Premium users have access to did mention that Jordan have a problem defending set pieces and the goalkeeper was again in no man's land for Algeria's first goal and made a bit of a mess for the second too. That leaves us with a box office final match between Algeria and Austria who are both on 3 points heading into Round 3.

Today

Round 2 will come to a close with matches from Groups K and L. Portugal and Croatia are under a bit of pressure, while the headline game of the day is probably also the hardest to watch for those of us in Europe and Africa as Colombia face DRC.

Today's schedule:

• 🇵🇹 Portugal vs. Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 (Group K) | Kick-off 12:00 local, 18:00 UK, 19:00 CET/CAT
• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England vs. Ghana 🇬🇭 (Group L) | Kick-off 16:00 local, 21:00 UK, 22:00 CET/CAT
• 🇵🇦 Panama vs. Croatia 🇭🇷 (Group L) | Kick-off 19:00 local, 00:00 UK, 01:00 CET/CAT
• 🇨🇴 Colombia vs. Congo DR 🇨🇩 (Group K) | Kick-off 20:00 local, 03:00 UK, 04:00 CET/CAT

Portugal can't play much worse than they did in Round 1, so will surely get a result? I'm not convinced they'll suddenly put in a 4-0 or something like Spain did though.

England and Croatia should both win comfortably; I'm not expecting too many fireworks in Group L.

Then, in the final match of Round 2, I don't think I'm brave enough to go against Colombia but I think that will be a great game and they'll likely only win it by a single goal. DRC were really impressive against Portugal.

For match previews for each game (and all others in the tournament), upgrade to Superbru Premium.

Good luck to all.