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.
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.
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!
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.
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's schedule:
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.
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 usersAfter 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 usersThis 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 usersI 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 usersGroup 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
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.
Superbru on X
England 3-0 Ghana
Panama 0-2 Croatia
Colombia 3-1 DR Congo
Now he's saying he's back after a brace in a group stage game lol. Probably the most delusional footballer in history ha.
He will forever be firmly in Messi's shadow (and plenty of others). 23 Jun 19:34
Well, I love (or loved) football and I wasn't glad. He represents everything I hate about the game both on and off the park. A spreadsheet footballer who is the enemy of the purist. 23 Jun 19:36
Ronaldo is quality admired both as they are standouts we won't see again
Ronaldo was a great player but I'd have him about 8th best ever, Definitely gets a boost in the all-time debate because of his fame off the pitch and celebrity culture. 23 Jun 19:38
Agree, Matteo - Haaland is a fantastic goalscorer but Kane is a much better link up player and ;passer. 24 Jun 02:54
They both score a similar amount of goals, but Messi scores goals of a higher degree of difficulty. He's also a far better player qualitatively, with infinitely better dribbling, passing, vision, weight of pass, finishing (Ronaldo is a volume shooter who often had the lowest shot conversion rate in Europe), free-kicks, first touch, ability in tight spaces, chipping ability etc.
Messi also has far more MOTM awards over his career.
Messi is just miles better. I mean it's obvious. Ronaldo being compared to him is proof that - while Ronaldo is likely a top ten player of all time - he's totally overrated because he played in the social media era and Messi's era. 24 Jun 06:11
He clearly favours his right and will desperately try to maneuver his body shape to use his right. He's good with his left in one highly specific situation - driving a moving ball at goal. He cannot play a crossfield pass with his strong right foot never mind his weaker left foot. Ultimately , given how selfish he is, if he was two-footed he'd take penalties and free-kicks on the right hand side of the box with his left.
Truly ambidextrous players are players like Sneijder, Moravcik, Cazorla and Dembele where they're equally proficient with both feet and you cannot tell which they prefer.
Like, if you ask Ronaldo to constantly take touches to dribble, on the left foot, it will feel completely alien to him and he won't be able to do it.
This should be obvious and common sense but unfortunately many people are led by branding and media narratives. 24 Jun 08:19
Glad they didn't get a second goal as I think 2-0 was the second most popular pick lol. I got 1 point for going 3-1.
This round I scored 26. Plenty of people will have scored more, but a few aforementioned tinkers dropped my exact rate a bit. Still pretty consistent performance given my 28.5 points in round 1 (not sure which round was easier to predict, though, on paper).
I am pretty happy with my performance thus far. Let's see how round 3 - which is only four days with 6 games and three groups a day due to the simultaneous kick offs - turns out.
Hence, maybe a slight underperformance for me due mainly to the tinkering. But we will see. 24 Jun 04:48
Ah right, did you not make it? Would you have backed Colombia? Sounds not if not much damage done, or maybe you'd have 'only' got a close or result.
How many points did you get this round? 24 Jun 09:14
Played Result Close Exact Points
48 11 11 9 54.5 24 Jun 09:43
Could have been even better without the tinkering, but ah well.
I am sure this will be a fun round 24 Jun 10:06