Season Special: World Cup 2026

We have made it to our first World Cup year in the save, and as we did with the Euro's we will go through the tournament and see how everyone got on. Will England finally add that second World Cup win to their history, will one of the expected teams win it again or will we get a brand new winner, lets find out.

Group Stages

Group A immediately starts with a pretty open looking group, as all the teams have some good players but no one really stands out as a clear favourite. I'd probably go with Sweden and USA going through with Japan coming third, but I could see all 4 teams gaining points and it being settled on goal difference.

Group B is maybe a bit more predictable in who should win the group as Norway look clear favourites there, but then it could be between Canada and Australia for 2nd place, I don't really give much chance to Angola here to be honest.

Group C is another tight one for who will finish in the top 2, as Mexico, Serbia and Senegal could all be in the mix to win this. Only team I'd say wouldn't go through 100% is Thailand but maybe they can shock us!

Group D I think is pretty nailed on for Argentina to win, with Croatia and Ghana battling it for 2nd place but could see Croatia stealing it ahead of Ghana. Fair play to Lebanon for qualifying for the main tournament but I can see them getting battered by all 3 of the other teams in their group.

Group E looks pretty straight forward for Spain whilst Egypt, Uruguay and Costa Rica could all make a shout for second place, but I would probably lean towards Uruguay pinching the second place but again with all 4 teams scoring points.

Group F looks to be pretty kind to England and I'm not really sure who would go through with them, I would imagine Colombia are maybe the biggest threat so should take second on that basis but could be anyone really.

Group G has quite a few interesting teams in there, I would expect Italy to win it but we know they can have their wobbles in tournaments, Ivory Coast and Poland could prove tricky customers especially if Poland can recapture their form from the Euros which seen them get to the final. Even Paraguay could be a tough game but I would expect to see them bottom by the end of it.

Group H could literally be anyone, it's managed to put together 4 teams that are all close in terms of talent levels but if I was to take a guess at it, I'd go Turkey and Morocco to win with Austria coming a close third but very hard to call this one.

Group I shouldn't be too difficult for Germany to get through, but another close battle between Nigeria and Chile I would guess for second place, Panama unfortunately I can't see getting many points from this at all.

Group J I would imagine is pretty clear for Portugal to go ahead and win whilst the other 3 teams battle it out between themselves in a pretty poor group really. I think Ukraine have some decent players so that might just push them through with Portugal but unsure really.

Group K has to belong to Brazil, there's no way they don't win that group comfortably and then I would probably go with Czech Republic to take second place as Iran and Cuba just don't offer anything to the group in terms of competition.

Group L is going to be a tough battle for top place between France and Holland whilst the other two teams shouldn't cause much of a problem to either side, I think this could be one that comes down to goal difference unless one of them edges past the other in their match.

So what do you all think? Agree with my predictions or do you see anything else coming? Now is the time to predict because the results will come up next!

Group Stage Results

So first to admit is I forgot that there would be some third place teams going through, in fact 8 of the 12 third places will go through which allows some more teams through that I wasn't sure on when looking at the groups.

Group A was a tough one to call, but USA have claimed the victory winning all 3 of their games, whilst Sweden and Ecuador both come through with 4 points each which meant Japan scored 0 points. USA scored 11 and conceded 2 which is quite a good record actually when I considered them to just be in amongst the mix.

Group B only has the two go through and although I predicted Norway to be comfortable in it they only finished second with 6 points, whilst Canada won the group after winning all 3 games. Starting to look like there might be some home advantage going on. Australia completely miss out in third place due to only getting the one draw with Angola so a very poor competition for them.

Group C continues the home field advantage as Mexico win the group with7 points, although matched by Serbia who come through in second place. Senegal to squeeze through with 3 points whilst as predicted Thailand offered nothing to the group other than lots of goals as they scored 0 and conceded 10.

Group D almost threw up a shock, as Croatia and Ghana claimed the top two spots but Argentina with 4 points managed to get through in 3rd place as well whilst Lebanon did even worse than Thailand in the previous group. They conceded 14 without scoring.

I said group E would be tight after Spain winning it and I was proven correct, as it's goal difference that places Costa Rica bottom. However Uruguay still qualify for the next round in third place whilst Egypt and Spain claimed the automatic places.

Group F was indeed comfortable for England as they won all 3 of their games, whilst they're joined in the next round by Tunisia, knocking out Colombia completely which surprises me a little. I actually thought out of the three teams in the group outside of England, Tunisia would do the worst so that's a big result for them.

Group G was a tricky one to predict, but in the end it was Italy who managed to win the group with the same amount of points as Poland with 6 each. It then came down to goal difference and Paraguay claimed third and go through to the next round with them.

Group H was another tricky one as could have gone either way, and it was proven as none of the teams won 2 games. However Austria and Morocco both go through with 5 points each whilst Turkey and Jamaica go out completely with their 2 points.

Group I proved to be straight forward for Germany as they won all their games, whilst Nigeria and Chile both join them as they each got 4 points. Panama as expected offered very little and finished bottom with 0 points as predicted.

Group J didn't go as planned for Portugal as they only finished second, with Ukraine topping the group. Algeria come through in third place as Uzbekistan didn't really put up much of a fight.

Group K on the other hand went exactly as planned for Brazil, finding it very comfortable and unsurprisingly Czech Republic came through after beating the other two teams. However because Iran beat Cuba, they qualify for the next round too.

Group L was the final group and no shock to see that France and Holland both go through easily. France go through in first place after drawing with Saudi Arabia but beating Holland. Saudi and New Zealand both go out as neither team could beat each other to hit that 3 point mark that seems to have been the sweet spot.

Second Round

The second round threw up a couple of surprises for us compared to what you would usually expect which always makes the competition a bit more fun. With Paraguay knocking out Canada to set up a tie with Ghana, Nigeria beating Italy to set up a game with France and Argentina who were nearly knocked out beating Germany. Uruguay also beat Brazil whilst USA carried on their home advantage knocking out Serbia. Euro 2024 finalists Poland were also knocked out by Morocco so we've got a nice mix left in the round really.

Round of 16

The round of 16 threw up a couple of shock results as well whilst the teams dwindle down to the quarter finals who are left. Paraguay went to extra time to beat Ghana setting up their match with Croatia, who were able to beat Sweden. France needed extra time to beat Nigeria whilst Argentina relied on penalties to beat Uruguay. USA continued the home form as they knocked England out in extra time, setting up a quarter final with fellow hosts Mexico who beat Spain on penalties. The final games were set up as Portugal beat Ecuador and Netherlands required extra time to beat Morocco. Only 2 games in this round were sorted in normal time so it's looking pretty close between everyone.

Quarter Final

Unfortunately quite a few of our surprise teams were knocked out in the quarters to set up the semi finals, but one did remain! Croatia battered Paraguay to book their place in the semi final, where they will meet France who comfortably beat Argentina. Then our remaining surprise team is the USA as they won the battle of the hosts knocking out Mexico, and their reward is a semi final against Netherlands who required extra time to beat Portugal.

Semi Final

Our two finalists have been chosen, as France required extra time to knock out Croatia and are now going to see if they can win the Euros into the World Cup. However they will have to beat the hosts in the final, after USA comfortably beat Netherlands 3-1 and round off a really impressive tournament so far. Can they go all the win their own tournament, or will France take it away from them like they did to Poland two years ago?

Final

Of course it was France who won it. A 2-0 win against the hosts secures them the international double and now have to be considered strong favourites for the Euros in two years time again. In fairness they had a tricky run on the way to the final, beating Senegal, Nigeria, Argentina, Croatia and finally USA to win it all. USA surprised people through a lot of their rounds really, as they beat Serbia, England, Mexico and Netherlands to make it to the final.

Awards

Player Of The Tournament

I'm not too surprised to see two Americans out of the three, but it's Gio Reyna who gets the best player award after an excellent tournament for USA. He scored 4 goals and got 2 assists so was clearly a goal threat the entire time, whilst Croatian keeper Dominik Livakovic came in second place, and Weston McKennie rounded out the 3.

Young Player Of The Tournament

The Young Player of the Tournament goes to Shaqueel Van Persie, son of Robin Van Persie as he is already in the Dutch national team at 19 years old. He ended up playing 4 times for them scoring 3 times and 2 assist, so was very lethal at the top of the pitch and looks like he will have a bright future ahead of him. He is currently still playing in Feyenoord at their second team so I imagine there will be a few teams interested in him this transfer window now.

Dream Team

Hardly surprising to see the dream team was mainly filled with France and USA players although Croatia, Mexico and Argentina all managed to get 1 player in each. Admittedly only 2 USA players got in themselves and France got the other 6, but usually expected after they've won the whole thing.

Golden Boot

Now the Golden Boot has gone to Mbappe but I would argue Haaland in third place has actually won it. The top 3 have all scored 7 goals, but Mbappe and Gimenez both did it in 7 appearances, whilst Haaland only needed 4 games to meet that number.

Next Time

So that's the World Cup wrapped up, how did your predictions go in comparison to it playing out? Next post will be start of season 4 where we will have all the transfer updates, squad update for the coming season and a quick look at preseason. There is usually a couple of the first games of the season as well due to going until the transfer window shuts.