WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting

§ Groups · all twelve · the group stage

The group stage

Twelve groups of four; the top two of each plus the eight best third-placed teams reach the Round of 32. Each bar below splits a team's group-stage fate into win the group, runner-up, qualify as a best third and eliminated — the four sum to one. Probabilities and expected points come from the locked 100,000-tournament simulation; every team's P(advance) equals its Round-of-32 probability in the forecast exactly.

10 of 12 groups have a clear favourite; 2 are a tossup. The most open is Group D — even Türkiye tops it just 33% of the time.

Qualification bar Win group (1st) Runner-up (2nd) Best-third qualify (3rd) Eliminated advance line ± MC-SE
Group A Favourite Mexico 56%
  • Mexico
    93% adv 5.9 pts
  • Czechia
    73% adv 4.2 pts
  • Korea Republic
    68% adv 3.9 pts
  • South Africa
    35% adv 2.3 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group B Favourite Switzerland 57%
  • Switzerland
    96% adv 6.3 pts
  • Canada
    92% adv 5.5 pts
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
    60% adv 3.3 pts
  • Qatar
    18% adv 1.5 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group C Favourite Brazil 66%
  • Brazil
    98% adv 6.7 pts
  • Morocco
    89% adv 5.0 pts
  • Scotland
    70% adv 3.7 pts
  • Haiti
    12% adv 1.2 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group D Tossup Türkiye 33%
  • Türkiye
    77% adv 4.6 pts
  • Paraguay
    69% adv 4.1 pts
  • USA
    67% adv 3.9 pts
  • Australia
    61% adv 3.6 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group E Favourite Germany 55%
  • Germany
    98% adv 6.3 pts
  • Ecuador
    93% adv 5.5 pts
  • Côte d'Ivoire
    80% adv 4.2 pts
  • Curaçao
    5% adv 0.7 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group F Favourite Netherlands 53%
  • Netherlands
    92% adv 5.9 pts
  • Japan
    83% adv 4.8 pts
  • Sweden
    60% adv 3.4 pts
  • Tunisia
    33% adv 2.2 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group G Favourite Belgium 57%
  • Belgium
    94% adv 6.0 pts
  • IR Iran
    79% adv 4.5 pts
  • Egypt
    68% adv 3.8 pts
  • New Zealand
    28% adv 2.0 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group H Favourite Spain 76%
  • Spain
    99% adv 7.3 pts
  • Uruguay
    90% adv 5.2 pts
  • Saudi Arabia
    35% adv 2.3 pts
  • Cabo Verde
    27% adv 1.9 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group I Favourite France 56%
  • France
    95% adv 6.2 pts
  • Norway
    88% adv 5.1 pts
  • Senegal
    69% adv 3.8 pts
  • Iraq
    18% adv 1.5 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group J Favourite Argentina 73%
  • Argentina
    98% adv 6.9 pts
  • Austria
    77% adv 4.2 pts
  • Algeria
    70% adv 3.8 pts
  • Jordan
    20% adv 1.6 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group K Tossup Portugal 50%
  • Portugal
    94% adv 5.9 pts
  • Colombia
    91% adv 5.6 pts
  • Congo DR
    40% adv 2.5 pts
  • Uzbekistan
    36% adv 2.3 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
Group L Favourite England 64%
  • England
    98% adv 6.7 pts
  • Croatia
    90% adv 5.3 pts
  • Ghana
    36% adv 2.3 pts
  • Panama
    35% adv 2.3 pts
Round-robin · matrix · heatmap →
How these probabilities are produced

The four outcomes per team — win the group, finish runner-up, qualify as one of the eight best third-placed teams, or go out — are tallied directly from the locked 100,000-tournament Monte-Carlo simulation. The same run produces the champion and stage forecast, so each team's P(advance) here is identical to its P(reach R32) on the forecast page; the group-stage finishing order uses the full official FIFA tiebreakers (points → goal difference → goals for → head-to-head → drawing of lots).

The favourite / tossup badge is a reader's label, not a model parameter: a group has a favourite when its leader wins the group at least 45% of the time and leads the second team by at least 15 points; otherwise it is a tossup. Expected points is the mean points total after three matches across the simulations. Uncertainty (±1.96 · Monte-Carlo SE) is drawn as a whisker on the advance line.