WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting

Netherlands is the clear favourite, winning Group F53% of the time. Netherlands (92%) and Japan (83%) are the likeliest to advance; Sweden carries the group's best third-place qualification hope (24%).

  • Netherlands UEFA
    92% adv 5.9 pts
    win53% 2nd28% 3rd-q11% GD+2.5
  • Japan AFC
    83% adv 4.8 pts
    win30% 2nd36% 3rd-q17% GD+1.1
  • Sweden UEFA
    60% adv 3.4 pts
    win12% 2nd24% 3rd-q24% GD−1.0
  • Tunisia CAF
    33% adv 2.2 pts
    win4% 2nd12% 3rd-q16% GD−2.6

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

Group F — simulated finishing positions

🇳🇱 Netherlands Netherlands — finish 1st: 52.8% 53% Netherlands — finish 2nd: 28.3% 28% Netherlands — finish 3rd: 13.5% 14% Netherlands — finish 4th: 5.3% 5% 🇯🇵 Japan Japan — finish 1st: 30.4% 30% Japan — finish 2nd: 35.6% 36% Japan — finish 3rd: 23.1% 23% Japan — finish 4th: 11.0% 11% 🇸🇪 Sweden Sweden — finish 1st: 12.5% 12% Sweden — finish 2nd: 23.7% 24% Sweden — finish 3rd: 35.8% 36% Sweden — finish 4th: 28.0% 28% 🇹🇳 Tunisia Tunisia — finish 1st: 4.3% 4% Tunisia — finish 2nd: 12.4% 12% Tunisia — finish 3rd: 27.7% 28% Tunisia — finish 4th: 55.7% 56%

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.

Netherlands owns first place (53%); 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.