By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-07-18 17:28:12 | Updated at 2026-08-02 20:20:38
2 weeks ago
Use our 2026 FIFA World Cup bracket to look back on the knockout stages and get the latest Opta supercomputer predictions for the final.
The 2026 World Cup final is upon us.
We trudged through a group stage that felt like it lasted an eternity, and now just one meaningful match remains: Sunday’s final.
We saw veritable giants fall pretty early with the likes of Germany, Netherlands and Brazil failing to reach the quarter-finals; rising powers such as Norway made a statement, and Morocco once again enjoyed a fine campaign.
All three of the co-hosts crashed out at the last-16 stage. United States had looked capable of going deep into the tournament with some exciting displays, but after finding themselves in the spotlight after Folarin Balogun‘s red card was suspended, the USMNT crumbled to a 4-1 defeat against Belgium.
Before that, we said goodbye to Canada, who lost 3-0 to Morocco, and Mexico, after their dramatic 3-2 loss to England in something of a World Cup classic (at least that’s how England fans will remember it!).
The last-16 stage also proved the end of the road for Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo, who featured for (presumably) the last time at the World Cup in the 1-0 defeat to Spain. Reigning champions Argentina survived notable scares against Egypt and surprise package Cape Verde.
The final four ended up being the Opta supercomputer’s four pre-tournament favourites, with Spain, France, Argentina and England left standing.
France became the darlings of the supercomputer after some excellent group-stage performances but were comfortably dealt with by Spain, the pre-tournament favourites and European champions, in Tuesday’s semi-final, booking their place in the final with a 2-0 win in Dallas.
Argentina then produced a dramatic late comeback against England to join Spain in the final, continuing their title defence.
There’s obviously not much uncertainty left in the World Cup bracket. But it lets you look back through the knockouts, identifying who’s potentially had the toughest route to the final, while it’ll also update with the Opta supercomputer’s predictions for the final, with probabilities of success based on its 25,000 simulations of games.
The bracket and the Opta supercomputer percentages will update every day until the final. On mobile, tap on a team to show their probability of success.
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