Before the 2018 World Cup kicked off last week at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, much had been written about why Russia was so bad at soccer. A convincing 5-0 opening match win over Saudi Arabia — Russia’s first win at the tournament since 2002 also matched its largest margin of victory at a World Cup […]
Over the next few days, FiveThirtyEight will be examining each of the eight groups in the 2018 World Cup, which begins June 14 in Russia. Picking the winner of Group A feels a bit pointless. Possibly the weakest group in the history of the World Cup will advance two teams to the round of 16. […]
The World Cup’s knockout stage begins Saturday, with both matchups pitting South American teams against each other. Lose and they’re gone. Brazil vs. Chile 12 p.m. EDT Colombia vs. Uruguay 4 p.m. EDT IN BRIEF See our World Cup predictions for the latest probabilities. IN DEPTH Uruguay must face Colombia without striker Luis Suárez, who has been […]
The World Cup’s knockout stage begins Saturday, with both matchups pitting South American teams against each other. Lose and they’re gone. Brazil vs. Chile 12 p.m. EDT Colombia vs. Uruguay 4 p.m. EDT IN BRIEF See our World Cup predictions for the latest probabilities. IN DEPTH Uruguay must face Colombia without striker Luis Suárez, who has been […]
Saturday brings a handful of games that are close enough to be fascinating — or boring; it depends on your point of view. Love blowouts? We’re unlikely to see one in this set of games (Uruguay and Costa Rica’s predicted goal differential is just 0.7) . But we do have one of the most mismatched mascot matchups with Japan versus Ivory […]
