The 2026 World Cup is entering its knockout stage, with 16 teams set to be eliminated following the first round of matches. The tournament's final is scheduled to take place at MetLife Stadium near New York City on July 19.
Among the key matchups in the last-32 are England facing DR Congo and defending champions Argentina taking on Cape Verde. The group stage saw unexpected results, with Ecuador's victory over Germany catching many by surprise. More than 56,000 predictions for the Ecuador-Germany game saw only 597 correctly back Ecuador.
BBC Sport's football expert Chris Sutton and an AI model both predicted Germany to win that match. Sutton and the AI each correctly predicted 15 out of 24 group stage matches. However, users of the BBC's predictor game outperformed both, with 48 correct predictions out of 72 completed matches, achieving a 67% accuracy rate.
Sutton's pre-tournament predictions for group stage final standings saw him correctly identify seven group winners, but he accurately ordered all four teams in only three groups. The AI's predictions were generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat, with the prompt 'predict the results of the World Cup last-32 ties'. The BBC predictor game allows readers to select a winner for each knockout tie.