The World Cup's final reckoning has arrived, and with it, a host of thrilling matches that promise to leave fans on the edge of their seats. England are set to take on DR Congo in one of the standout fixtures, while reigning champions Argentina face the plucky Cape Verde side who stunned the football world by causing an upset against Saudi Arabia in the group stages.
Chris Sutton's expert predictions have already been revealed, and it seems users were ahead of the game when it came to guessing a draw between Cape Verde and Saudi. A staggering 43% of participants even backed Cape Verde for victory – talk about faith! Meanwhile, Sutton and AI got it wrong with their prediction for Ecuador vs Germany, but users did better than expected, correctly predicting 17 matches in total, against Sutton's 41 (57%) and AI's 43 (60%). The users are currently leading the way in the BBC predictor game, having nailed 48 out of 104 matches so far.
Sutton's got his sights set on several last-32 matches, and here's what he's predicting. For South Africa vs Canada, Sutton is tipping a convincing 3-0 victory for the visitors – citing their pace and energy in the group stage. He believes South Africa benefited from underestimation by South Korea. Meanwhile, Monday's showdown between Brazil and Japan promises to be an epic encounter with Sutton foreseeing a 2-1 win for Japan. He thinks Brazil might struggle against Japan's lightning-fast counterattacks, despite Carlo Ancelotti's tactical acumen.
Germany are expected to return to full strength after their group-winning performance and take on Paraguay with a 2-1 scoreline. As we count down the days until the final at MetLife Stadium in New York City, fans are eagerly anticipating these high-stakes matches – will history repeat itself or will new heroes emerge?
Sutton's pre-tournament predictions saw him correctly identify seven group winners and the full correct order of teams in three groups. The AI predictions were generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat, which was prompted to predict the results of the last-32 ties. The BBC predictor game is still open for users to select a winner for each knockout fixture – so get involved and see if you can outdo Chris Sutton and his AI sidekick!