Which teams are still in the World Cup now comes down to 16 sides, with the tournament into the last-16 ties after 88 of 104 matches. Chris Sutton has already gone 13 for 16 on his predictions, while AI has 12 for 16.
Chris Sutton on Morocco
The Sport football expert backed Morocco to beat Canada and said, "I actually think Morocco can win this World Cup but, first things first, they will definitely win this game." He also predicted France would be too strong for Morocco in the quarter-finals.
That call sits alongside a more specific judgement on the last-16 board: Sutton said he was right with 13 of 16 predictions, which put him ahead of AI and the 62 users who made 60,000 predictions and landed 62 correct answers out of 90, described as 70%.
Canada, Jesse Marsch
Canada reached the last 16 after collecting its first World Cup point and then its first World Cup win, a climb that put Jesse Marsch's side into the round Sutton was trying to read. The gap between that progress and Sutton's Morocco pick is part of the point: Canada arrived with momentum, but the prediction panel still leaned the other way.
His comment on Eilidh Barbour's choice was sharper. "she's not going to win any bravery awards for saying that, is she?" he said after she went against him on one of the ties.
Paraguay and England
Paraguay's win over Germany was the surprise Sutton did not share with most users, while Morocco's win over the Netherlands was the only other result users got wrong in the last 32. Those two outcomes left the bracket thinner and the remaining field easier to map by outcome rather than by reputation.
Mexico against England and Paraguay against France are among the last-16 ties in the frame, with the race now tightening toward the quarter-finals and then the final at MetLife Stadium near New York City on 19 July. A short guide on Which Teams Are Still In The World Cup narrows to 16 shows how quickly the field has collapsed from the full tournament to a knockout run where one wrong call can end everything.
