Sutton's World Cup 2026 Final Group Game Predictions
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- Chris Sutton is predicting all 104 games at the World Cup and has now published his final-round group picks, alongside AI predictions and a BBC reader predictor game
- The BBC user predictor game outperformed both experts in round two, correctly calling 18 of 24 results compared to Sutton's 14/24 and the AI's 15/24
- AI predictions are generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat and have improved from 13/24 in the first round of group fixtures to 15/24 in the second
- Cape Verde have been the tournament's surprise package, drawing with both Spain and Uruguay despite 99.65% of predictor users backing them to lose to Spain
- Sutton predicts Scotland will lose 0-2 to Brazil in Miami but still advance to the last 32 as one of the best third-placed teams
- Belgium are described as 'a massive disappointment' with Sutton backing them to beat New Zealand 1-3 in Vancouver to salvage their campaign
- France's Kylian Mbappe is tipped by Sutton to outscore Norway's Erling Haaland in their Boston Group I decider, with Sutton backing France to top the group
Why it matters: Sutton's round-by-round accuracy (14/24) trails both the BBC's crowd predictor (18/24) and Microsoft Copilot's AI (15/24), suggesting that for the final 24 group games the wisdom of the crowd may continue to beat both a named expert and a major LLM — a notable result given the AI tool's jump from 13 to 15 correct picks between rounds.