WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting

Germany is the clear favourite, winning Group E55% of the time. Germany (98%) and Ecuador (93%) are the likeliest to advance; Côte d'Ivoire carries the group's best third-place qualification hope (39%).

  • Germany UEFA
    98% adv 6.3 pts
    win55% 2nd30% 3rd-q13% GD+4.4
  • Ecuador CONMEBOL
    93% adv 5.5 pts
    win32% 2nd40% 3rd-q21% GD+2.3
  • Côte d'Ivoire CAF
    80% adv 4.2 pts
    win13% 2nd28% 3rd-q39% GD+0.3
  • Curaçao CONCACAF
    5% adv 0.7 pts
    win0% 2nd1% 3rd-q4% GD−7.0

Fig. V4 100k sims · official tiebreakers · row sums to 100%

Group E — simulated finishing positions

🇩🇪 Germany Germany — finish 1st: 54.9% 55% Germany — finish 2nd: 30.1% 30% Germany — finish 3rd: 14.2% 14% Germany — finish 4th: 0.8% 1% 🇪🇨 Ecuador Ecuador — finish 1st: 31.7% 32% Ecuador — finish 2nd: 40.5% 40% Ecuador — finish 3rd: 25.5% 25% Ecuador — finish 4th: 2.4% 2% 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire — finish 1st: 13.2% 13% Côte d'Ivoire — finish 2nd: 28.1% 28% Côte d'Ivoire — finish 3rd: 51.4% 51% Côte d'Ivoire — finish 4th: 7.3% 7% 🇨🇼 Curaçao Curaçao — finish 1st: 0.2% 0% Curaçao — finish 2nd: 1.3% 1% Curaçao — finish 3rd: 9.0% 9% Curaçao — finish 4th: 89.5% 90%

Top two qualify automatically (left of the line). Third place advances only as one of the eight best third-placed teams across the twelve groups.

Germany owns first place (55%); below the top two the third- and fourth-place mass is where qualification is really decided.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
Reading the matrix and the heatmap

Both the advancement matrix and this heatmap are tallied from the same locked 100,000-tournament simulation that produces the forecast. Each row of the heatmap sums to 100% (a team finishes somewhere); each column sums to 100% across the four teams (exactly one team takes each position). The dashed line sits between 2nd and 3rd: the top two qualify automatically, while third place advances only if it ranks among the eight best third-placed teams across the twelve groups — which is why a team's P(advance) exceeds its P(top-two) by its best-third qualification chance.