WC 2026 · Forecasting Oxford Football Forecasting
🇨🇿

Czechia

UEFA Group A
0.3% Champion probability ±0.02 MC-SE
Coach
Miroslav Koubek home · Czech
Elo (model)
1,740
Squad value
€225M
Power → Reality
28th 26th +0.06 pp · neutral draw

Fig. D1 Fixture-aware · 100k sims

Czechia — stage progression

Round of 32: 73.42% (95% MC 73.15%–73.69%; MC-SE ±0.14 pts) Round of 32 reach 73.4% ±0.14 Round of 16: 35.64% (95% MC 35.34%–35.94%; MC-SE ±0.15 pts) Round of 16 reach 35.6% ±0.15 Quarter-final: 12.56% (95% MC 12.36%–12.77%; MC-SE ±0.10 pts) Quarter-final reach 12.6% ±0.10 Semi-final: 3.59% (95% MC 3.48%–3.71%; MC-SE ±0.06 pts) Semi-final reach 3.6% ±0.06 Final: 1.04% (95% MC 0.98%–1.10%; MC-SE ±0.03 pts) Final reach 1.0% ±0.03 Champion: 0.28% (95% MC 0.24%–0.31%; MC-SE ±0.02 pts) Champion reach 0.3% ±0.02

On the central forecast, Czechia more likely than not reaches the Round of 32 (73%). Champion probability is 0.3% ± 0.02 pts.

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model
Group A Confed Advance (top 2) Reach R32
1🇲🇽MexicoCONCACAF54.5%92.7%
2🇨🇿CzechiaUEFA35.6%73.4%
3🇰🇷Korea RepublicAFC31.8%68.4%
4🇿🇦South AfricaCAF10.1%34.7%

Source · Oxford Football Forecasting model

Bracket position Half 1 · Quadrant 2

Earliest possible meetings

No collision rows recorded for this team.

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

Match 2 · 2026-06-12 · Guadalajara Stadium away
Czechia Korea Republic
35.9% win 30.6% draw 33.5% loss
Most likely 1–1 (14.3%) λ 1.17–1.12 Over 2.5 40% · BTTS 48%
Match 25 · 2026-06-18 · Atlanta Stadium home
Czechia South Africa
51.1% win 29.2% draw 19.7% loss
Most likely 1–0 (14.7%) λ 1.41–0.78 Over 2.5 38% · BTTS 42%
Match 53 · 2026-06-25 · Mexico City Stadium home
Czechia Mexico
23.7% win 28.3% draw 48% loss
Most likely 1–1 (13.4%) λ 0.96–1.47 Over 2.5 44% · BTTS 49%
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 Czechia. 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

Czechia vs the field

Elo rating: 1740 vs field median 1780 (0.98× the field) Elo rating 1740 med 1780 Recent NT form: 2.07 ppg vs field median 1.87 ppg (1.11× the field) Recent NT form 2.07 ppg med 1.87 ppg Squad value: €225M vs field median €286M (0.79× the field) Squad value €225M med €286M Squad form (global): 0.268 vs field median 0.211 (1.27× the field) Squad form (global) 0.268 med 0.211 Fitness readiness: 0.779 vs field median 0.707 (1.10× the field) Fitness readiness 0.779 med 0.707 Familiarity / chemistry: 0.166 vs field median 0.015 (10.79× the field) Familiarity / chemistry 0.166 med 0.015 Experience (mean caps): 21 vs field median 25 (0.83× 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

Czechia on the decoupling axis

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

g = +0.06 ± 0.05: the squad is valued above its record — the transfer market rates this side above what its results have earned.

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
11distinct clubs
10largest club bloc
# Player Pos Club League Club min Gls Caps NT gls
1Matěj KovářGKPSV EindhovenEredivisie +0.74z3,8700200
2David ZimaDFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,5131251
3Tomáš HolešDFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,2822412
4Robin HranáčDFTSG HoffenheimBundesliga +1.84z2,4231141
5Vladimír CoufalDFTSG HoffenheimBundesliga +1.84z3,1071622
6Štěpán ChaloupekDFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,3951050
7Ladislav Krejčí (captain)DFWolverhampton Wanderersno club data275
8Vladimír DaridaMFHradec KrálovéCzech Liga +0.20z2,77510798
9Adam HložekFWTSG HoffenheimBundesliga +1.84z360435
10Patrik SchickFWBayer LeverkusenBundesliga +1.84z2,953225326
11Jan KuchtaFWSparta PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,08612313
12Lukáš ČervMFViktoria PlzeňCzech Liga +0.20z3,8012172
13Mojmír ChytilFWSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z1,63313226
14David JurásekDFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z1,3461181
15Pavel ŠulcFWLyonLigue 1 +1.70z2,26014215
16Jindřich StaněkGKSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,2500140
17Lukáš ProvodMFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z3,1817383
18Michal SadílekMFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,6561351
19Tomáš ChorýFWSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,34217227
20Jaroslav ZelenýDFSparta PragueCzech Liga +0.20z2,3711230
21David DouděraDFSlavia PragueCzech Liga +0.20z1,9451172
22Tomáš SoučekMFWest Ham UnitedPremier League +2.21z2,56269017
23Lukáš HorníčekGKBragaPrimeira Liga +1.14z4,220010
24Alexandr SojkaMFViktoria PlzeňCzech Liga +0.20z950220
25Hugo SochůrekMFSparta PragueCzech Liga +0.20z606010
26Denis VišinskýFWViktoria PlzeňCzech Liga +0.20z2,130921

Source · Official squad announcements · API-Football (global club coverage). 1 of 26 players have no club season matched in API-Football — shown as “— no club data”, not imputed. Form coverage for this squad: 96%.

Diaspora in the hosts

133,310

12.0 per 1,000 of home population

Host-language familiarity

Foreign

primary language Czech

Climate adaptation gap

+1.8°C

home-vs-venue heat differential

Venue extremes

37°C

peak heat index · altitude up to 2,287 m

Travel

8h

max time-zone shift · nearest venue 6,301 km

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

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

Czechia — Elo since 1994

1802 world #44
Czechia Qualified-field median

Czechia ends the series at 1802 Elo, the world’s 44th-ranked side — below 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.

96% Squad club-form coverage Share of this squad with a matched club season feeding the global form layer.
96% 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 Czechia, 1 of 26 players are shown as “— no club data”. Full validation, calibration & conformal coverage →