WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting

Belgium is the clear favourite, winning Group G57% of the time. Belgium (94%) and IR Iran (79%) are the likeliest to advance; Egypt carries the group's best third-place qualification hope (24%).

  • Belgium UEFA
    94% adv 6.0 pts
    win57% 2nd26% 3rd-q11% GD+2.9
  • IR Iran AFC
    79% adv 4.5 pts
    win24% 2nd35% 3rd-q20% GD+0.6
  • Egypt CAF
    68% adv 3.8 pts
    win15% 2nd28% 3rd-q24% GD−0.3
  • New Zealand OFC
    28% adv 2.0 pts
    win3% 2nd10% 3rd-q14% GD−3.2

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

Group G — simulated finishing positions

🇧🇪 Belgium Belgium — finish 1st: 57.1% 57% Belgium — finish 2nd: 26.3% 26% Belgium — finish 3rd: 12.5% 13% Belgium — finish 4th: 4.0% 4% 🇮🇷 IR Iran IR Iran — finish 1st: 24.3% 24% IR Iran — finish 2nd: 35.3% 35% IR Iran — finish 3rd: 27.3% 27% IR Iran — finish 4th: 13.1% 13% 🇪🇬 Egypt Egypt — finish 1st: 15.3% 15% Egypt — finish 2nd: 28.1% 28% Egypt — finish 3rd: 35.7% 36% Egypt — finish 4th: 20.9% 21% 🇳🇿 New Zealand New Zealand — finish 1st: 3.3% 3% New Zealand — finish 2nd: 10.3% 10% New Zealand — finish 3rd: 24.5% 24% New Zealand — finish 4th: 61.9% 62%

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.

Belgium owns first place (57%); 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.