2026 World Cup Predictor: Day 6

I said Day 4 was the best day so far at this World Cup, but Day 5 was undoubtedly the most unpredictable day yet. A tough one for Superbru players!

With draws in all four of the matches across Groups G and H, plenty of us had no points at all on Monday.

Will today be a bit better? Here is your World Cup Day 6 update, beginning with a review of yesterday's chaos.

🇪🇸 Spain 0-0 Cape Verde 🇨🇻

Outcome predicted by 0.6% of users | Scoreline predicted by 0.05% of users (138 players)

One of the greatest upsets in World Cup history. Cape Verde deserved this point, as they defended like lions and prevented Spain from even having more than a couple of clear cut chances. It's great to see 40-year old goalkeeper Vozinha getting so much deserved praise, but it's worth noting his performance was a well-focused and consistent one rather than including any absolutely outrageous saves because Cape Verde kept Spain to an xG of 2.1 which isn't really that high considering they had 27 attempts.



For Spain, I don't think it's a case of alarm bells just yet, though my concern would be that they looked very much like the old Spain again as soon as Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams weren't available to start. It's easy to forget just how remarkable those two players were throughout the Euro 2024 triumph and they gave Spain a direct 1v1 threat that they otherwise sorely lack.

That said, Victor Munoz could surely have been selected over Gavi to provide a bit of that, and there were other more like-for-like options that could have been named in the squad considering fitness concerns over Williams in particular such as Jesus Rodriguez or Ander Barrenetxea.

🇧🇪 Belgium 1-1 Egypt 🇪🇬

Outcome predicted by 15.1% of users | Scoreline predicted by 9.1% of users

Egypt were good value for their point in this one and may even be slightly disappointed that they didn't finally find a first World Cup win in their history because Belgium weren't really at it in Seattle. Emam Ashour scored a great goal and I thought Mohamed Salah looked really sharp, while defensively they doubled (and sometimes tripled) up on Jeremy Doku which is clearly sensible and something other teams in Group G will surely replicate.

When Doku is taken out of the game, Belgium need more from their other players and I thought both Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans were 'fine' rather than excellent. Full backs are the other areas where the Red Devils can perhaps find more creativity going forward and you'd think Maxim de Cuyper will start the other two group games.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 1-1 Uruguay 🇺🇾

Outcome predicted by 9.1% of users | Scoreline predicted by 6.3% of users

A clear story in each half of this one. In the first half, Uruguay were absolutely dreadful. In the second half, Saudi Arabia keeper Mohammed Al Owais was sensational. Marcelo Bielsa made the changes he needed to at half-time, switching to a 4-3-3 that introduced Agustin Canobbio as a good option on the right and pushed Federico Valverde inside where he was much more effective. Expect to see that as Plan A going forward.

I picked Uruguay on the basis that I didn't think Saudi Arabia would be very good rather than because I had much faith in Uruguay scoring lots of goals, but in fairness to Saudi, they were more resilient than I'd anticipated. Al Owais needed to be excellent as I say, but the match between Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde is now a huge one!

🇮🇷 Iran 2-2 New Zealand 🇳🇿

Outcome predicted by 33% of users | Scoreline predicted by 2.4% of users

In keeping with the unpredictable theme of the day, Iran vs. New Zealand, which was the least attractive fixture of Day 5, proved to be the highest-scoring clash. There was so much more space in this game than I'd anticipated, partly because New Zealand just went for it so well done to them for that. I wasn't expecting an end-to-end game at all though and it was crazy how much space Chris Wood often had to bring down the ball, turn, and play a pass.

Clearly, as Mehdi Taremi spoke about post-match, this is far from a normal tournament for Iran though and it was perhaps unreasonable to expect them to play even close to their FIFA ranking. I'm not sure predicting Group G will get any easier in Round 2! Shout out to Mohammad Mohebi for his goal though, cracking header.

Today

Two big guns begin their campaigns today, with 2022 runners-up France facing Senegal and 2022 champions Argentina taking on Algeria.

Today's schedule:

• 🇫🇷 France vs. Senegal 🇸🇳 (Group I) | Kick-off 15:00 local, 20:00 UK, 21:00 CET/CAT
• 🇮🇶 Iraq vs. Norway 🇳🇴 (Group I) | Kick-off 18:00 local, 23:00 UK, 00:00 CET/CAT
• 🇦🇷 Argentina vs. Algeria 🇩🇿 (Group J) | Kick-off 20:00 local, 02:00 UK, 03:00 CET/CAT
• 🇦🇹 Austria vs. Jordan 🇯🇴 (Group J) | Kick-off 21:00 local, 05:00 UK, 06:00 CET/CAT

A fun line-up. Senegal will be a great early test for France, and then it's time to see if Norway's stacked attack lives up to the hype against Iraq.

Defending champions Argentina will also be an interesting watch, though as we know, even if they lose their opener, that might be considered a good omen if anything.

Austria vs. Jordan is not a match I expect to have the stamina to watch live after the first three, but I will be very surprised if it's anything other than an Austria win when I watch it back after some sleep 😁

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

Good luck to all and here's hoping there might be a winner or two today as I haven't picked any draws.