World Cup predictions: Mexico vs South Korea, Canada vs Qatar and more

The World Cup on Thursday features four more group-stage matches, including a meeting between Mexico and South Korea after both teams opened the tournament with wins.

The race for the Golden Boot is already taking shape, Cape Verde and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are celebrating historic results, and debates over hydration breaks, diversity in football and Africa’s growing presence at the tournament continue to generate discussion.

Mexico have a strong record against South Korea, winning both of their previous World Cup meetings, including a 2-1 victory in Russia 2018.

While both teams boosted their knockout-stage hopes with opening wins, Opta’s supercomputer favours Mexico in this Group A clash. Across 25,000 simulations, El Tri won 49.1 percent of the time, compared with 24.3 percent for South Korea, while 26.6 percent ended in a draw.

Czechia and South Africa have met only once before. South Africa have a solid record against European opposition at the World Cup, including a famous 2-1 win over France in 2010, and have lost only one of their last four such matches.

The Czechs, meanwhile, lost 2-0 to Ghana in their only previous World Cup match against African opposition. Opta’s supercomputer calculates Czechia as the favourites, giving them a 54.9 percent chance of victory, compared with 21.8 percent for South Africa.

This will be the first World Cup meeting between Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The only previous match between the two nations came in a friendly in Zurich in 2016 when Bosnia claimed a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic.

Despite that result, Switzerland enter this match as the clear favourites. According to Opta’s supercomputer, Switzerland won 61.6 percent of 25,000 pre-match simulations while Bosnia came out on top in 17 percent. A draw was predicted in 21.4 percent of the scenarios.