France the team to beat? Chris Sutton predicts World Cup's last-32 matches
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ByChris BevanBBC Sport journalistPublished28 June 2026Sixteen of the 48 teams are heading home, but which of the sides left standing will survive all the way to the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium near New York City on 19 July?
The hopes of another 16 nations will bite the dust after the first knockout round, which includes England against DR Congo and holders Argentina against surprise package Cape Verde. It was a different team who caused the biggest shock in the final set of group games, however. While BBC Sport's football expert Chris Sutton and AI still went for Cape Verde to lose against Saudi Arabia - from more than 50,000 users playing the BBC's new predictor game - 39% of you correctly went for a draw and 43% even backed the African side to win.
Instead, it was Ecuador who caught almost everyone out this time. From more than 56,000 users predictions for that game, only 597 of you correctly backed them to beat Germany. Chris and AI were also wrong about that one but, overall, they both got 15/24 predictions right from that set of matches.
Again, the users did better, with 17/24, and they still lead the way with 72 of this World Cup's 104 matches now completed. Chris has been right 41 times (57%), AI has a score of 43 (60%), but you lot are doing even better with 48 (67%).
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