The Athletic Backs Spain, Belgium, Uruguay and Iran in 4 Matchday 5 World Cup Picks
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 15
The Athletic Backs Spain, Belgium, Uruguay and Iran in 4 Matchday 5 World Cup Picks
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 15
Summary
Four Matchday 5 games headline The Athletic’s latest World Cup predictions, with unanimous picks for Spain over Cape Verde and Uruguay over Saudi Arabia.
Belgium also drew broad support against Egypt, while Iran-New Zealand was the split call: The Athletic experts picked a draw, but Algo, the guest reader and Stanley the dog chose Iran.
Spain-Cape Verde carried the lowest upset risk at 1/5, while Iran-New Zealand was rated the day’s most volatile matchup at 5/5; Belgium-Egypt sat at 3/5 and Uruguay-Saudi Arabia at 2/5.
Matchday 4 tightened the prediction leaderboard after Germany’s 7-1 win, Sweden’s 5-1 victory and Ivory Coast’s late 1-0 result, leaving reader picks and Algo joint top on 58% accuracy.