WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting
🇦🇺

Australia

AFC Group D
0.3% Champion probability ±0.02 MC-SE
Coach
Tony Popovic home · Australian
Elo (model)
1,777 world 24th
Squad value
€55M
Power → Reality
25th 27th −0.00 pp · neutral draw

Fig. D1 Fixture-aware · 100k sims

Australia — stage progression

Round of 32: 61.26% (95% MC 60.96%–61.56%; MC-SE ±0.15 pts) Round of 32 reach 61.3% ±0.15 Round of 16: 28.64% (95% MC 28.36%–28.92%; MC-SE ±0.14 pts) Round of 16 reach 28.6% ±0.14 Quarter-final: 10.12% (95% MC 9.94%–10.31%; MC-SE ±0.10 pts) Quarter-final reach 10.1% ±0.10 Semi-final: 3.21% (95% MC 3.10%–3.32%; MC-SE ±0.06 pts) Semi-final reach 3.2% ±0.06 Final: 1.02% (95% MC 0.96%–1.08%; MC-SE ±0.03 pts) Final reach 1.0% ±0.03 Champion: 0.25% (95% MC 0.22%–0.28%; MC-SE ±0.02 pts) Champion reach 0.3% ±0.02

On the central forecast, Australia more likely than not reaches the Round of 32 (61%). Champion probability is 0.3% ± 0.02 pts.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
Group D Confed Advance (top 2) Reach R32
1🇹🇷TürkiyeUEFA43.7%76.7%
2🇵🇾ParaguayCONMEBOL35.6%69.2%
3🇺🇸USACONCACAF29.4%67.2%
4🇦🇺AustraliaAFC28.6%61.3%

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Bracket position Half 0 · Quadrant 1

Earliest possible meetings

No collision rows recorded for this team.

Collision = the earliest round the bracket wiring could pit Australia against that side. Full bracket & collision matrix →

Match 6 · 2026-06-14 · BC Place Vancouver home
Australia Türkiye
28.8% win 30.6% draw 40.6% loss
Most likely 1–1 (14.2%) λ 1.00–1.24 Over 2.5 39% · BTTS 46%
Match 32 · 2026-06-19 · Seattle Stadium away
Australia USA
32.3% win 29.1% draw 38.6% loss
Most likely 1–1 (13.9%) λ 1.17–1.31 Over 2.5 45% · BTTS 51%
Match 60 · 2026-06-26 · San Francisco Bay Area Stadium away
Australia Paraguay
28.1% win 34.4% draw 37.5% loss
Most likely 0–0 (17.0%) λ 0.83–1.01 Over 2.5 28% · BTTS 37%
How a match forecast is built

Each pairing is scored by the ensemble (Dixon-Coles bivariate-Poisson, the Bayesian hierarchical model and the global LightGBM-Poisson, log-pooled), producing an 11×11 scoreline grid that is marginalised into win/draw/loss, expected goals (λ), over/under 2.5 and both-teams-to-score. These are the same distributions the tournament simulator consumes, oriented here to Australia. Knockout fixtures are not shown — their occupants are still probabilistic, so there is no single pairing to forecast yet.

Fig. D2 Relative to the 48-team median

Australia vs the field

Elo rating: 1777 vs field median 1780 (1.00× the field) Elo rating 1777 med 1780 Recent NT form: 1.93 ppg vs field median 1.87 ppg (1.04× the field) Recent NT form 1.93 ppg med 1.87 ppg Squad value: €55M vs field median €286M (0.19× the field) Squad value €55M med €286M Squad form (global): 0.087 vs field median 0.211 (0.41× the field) Squad form (global) 0.087 med 0.211 Fitness readiness: 0.616 vs field median 0.707 (0.87× the field) Fitness readiness 0.616 med 0.707 Familiarity / chemistry: 0.015 vs field median 0.015 (1.00× the field) Familiarity / chemistry 0.015 med 0.015 Experience (mean caps): 21 vs field median 25 (0.86× the field) Experience (mean caps) 21 med 25

Read each row as a multiple of the field median: dots to the right of the dashed line are above-field, to the left below. Raw values are labelled on the right so the comparison is transparent.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Fig. D3 Bayesian projection residual g

Australia on the decoupling axis

aligned (0) ← record > squad price squad valued > record →

g = −0.72 ± 0.05: the record outruns the squad price — the team has achieved more than its comparatively modest squad value would predict.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
What g means — and its limits

g is the residual from regressing a team’s current squad market value on its history-based strength in the Bayesian hierarchical model. Positive g means the squad is valued above what the team’s record predicts; negative means the record outruns the squad’s price (the side achieves more than its market value implies). Regressed on out-of-sample success the slope is positive — squad-rich sides go a touch further — but not statistically significant at n = 3 tournaments, so treat a single team’s g as a descriptive read, not a hard prediction. The full decoupling essay →

26players
25.8mean age
21mean caps
39%in a top-5 league
22distinct clubs
3largest club bloc
# Player Pos Club League Club min Gls Caps NT gls
1Mathew Ryan (captain)GKLevanteLa Liga +2.13z3,24001040
2Miloš DegenekDFAPOELno club data571
3Alessandro CircatiDFParmaSerie A +1.70z520131
4Jacob ItalianoDFGrazer AKBundesliga +0.26z2,065450
5Jordan BosDFFeyenoordno club data274
6Jason GeriaDFAlbirex NiigataJ1 League −0.99z1,4560140
7Mathew LeckieFWMelbourne CityA-League −2.17z40708014
8Connor MetcalfeMFFC St. PauliBundesliga +1.84z7120361
9Mohamed TouréFWNorwich Cityno club data102
10Ajdin HrusticFWHeracles AlmeloEredivisie +0.74z2,5224374
11Awer MabilFWCastellónSegunda División +2.13z1,72133810
12Paul IzzoGKRandersSuperliga −0.53z2,340040
13Aiden O'NeillMFNew York City FCMajor League Soccer −0.71z2,0640310
14Cammy DevlinMFHeart of MidlothianPremiership −0.28z4,405350
15Kai TrewinDFNew York City FCno club data60
16Aziz BehichDFMelbourne CityA-League −2.17z3,0663843
17Nestory IrankundaFWWatfordChampionship +2.21z2,2214155
18Patrick BeachGKMelbourne CityA-League −2.17z3,165020
19Harry SouttarDFLeicester CityChampionship +2.21z17813811
20Cristian VolpatoFWSassuoloSerie A +1.70z1,190210
21Cameron BurgessDFSwansea CityChampionship +2.21z4,5312270
22Jackson IrvineMFFC St. PauliBundesliga +1.84z1,74408214
23Nishan VelupillayFWMelbourne VictoryA-League −2.17z1,467473
24Paul Okon-EngstlerMFSydney FCA-League −2.17z2,325060
25Lucas HerringtonDFColorado Rapidsno club data40
26Tete YengiFWMachida ZelviaAFC Champions League Elite −0.05z480311

Source · Official squad announcements · API-Football (global club coverage). 5 of 26 players have no club season matched in API-Football — shown as “— no club data”, not imputed. Form coverage for this squad: 81%.

Diaspora in the hosts

126,673

5.0 per 1,000 of home population

Host-language familiarity

Shared

primary language English · spoken in a host

Climate adaptation gap

−3.0°C

home-vs-venue heat differential

Venue extremes

28°C

peak heat index · altitude up to 14 m

Travel

18h

max time-zone shift · nearest venue 12,206 km

Source · UN DESA international migrant stock · US Census Bureau · Open-Meteo & venue records

Fig. D4 eloratings.net method · year-end values

Australia — Elo since 1950

1902 world #24
Australia Qualified-field median

Australia ends the series at 1902 Elo, the world’s 24th-ranked side — above the qualified-field median.

Source · eloratings.net
Which Elo is this?

This line is the public eloratings.net series (year-end ratings), which terminates exactly at the current rating and world rank shown on the marker. It is a different number from the Elo shown in the header band (a panel-normalised rating used inside the forecast); the two are ~0.99 correlated but on different scales. We keep them distinct rather than blend them.

81% Squad club-form coverage Share of this squad with a matched club season feeding the global form layer.
81% Fitness-readiness coverage Where below 100%, part of the fitness signal is imputed by the de-biasing layer.
n = 3 Out-of-sample tournaments The model is validated on three held-out World Cups; it matches the market, it does not beat it.

Validated on n=3 held-out tournaments; coverage below 1.0 means part of this squad's club-form/fitness is imputed (the global de-biasing layer). For Australia, 5 of 26 players are shown as “— no club data”. Full validation, calibration & conformal coverage →