Welcome to The Athletic’s daily World Cup Predictions.This article gives you the lowdown on all today’s games but with the bonus of some friendly competition…Throughout the tournament, we will have one of two Athletic writers (Andy Jones or Elias Burke — with help from our experts from each of the 48 countries) pitting our soccer knowledge against a different Athletic subscriber each day and ‘Algo’, the shiny new algorithm from The Athletic, which is making its computerised debut during the 2026 World Cup.Oh, and a dog called Stanley and a six-year-old called Wilfred (who some of you may remember from last season’s Premier League predictions).Our guest subscriber today is Calvin from the U.S., who supports USMNT, Seattle Sounders and Everton. Good luck!If you would like to apply to be our guest subscriber for a day during this tournament, please follow the instructions in the article here.What happened on Matchday 31?Erling Haaland and Norway were sent packing by England on Saturday, though not without a fair share of controversy.The nuts and bolts are that England won 2-1 after extra time with an imperious Jude Bellingham scoring both after Andreas Schjelderup had given Norway the lead.But Norway were angered by England’s first goal which came after a goal kick appeared to hit an overhead sky camera wire before dropping to Elliot Anderson in the build-up. To add to the controversy, a goal from Torbjorn Heggem was disallowed via VAR after a push on Anderson by Haaland at a corner. England could argue they were unlucky to have a penalty overturned after Djed Spence went down in the area but, after Bellingham’s brilliance, they head into the final four.With four of our five predictors going for England (with Stanley, ever the rogue, going against the grain), the table remained as it was heading into the last quarter-final.Results from July 11, 2026 TA ExpertsThe AlgoReader PicksWilfred (age 6)Stanley the DogNorwayEngland ENG ENG ENG ENG NOR ArgentinaSwitzerland ARG ARG SUI ARG ARG Lionel Messi was, for once, not on the scoresheet in the final matchup as Argentina came through 3-1 winners against Switzerland after extra time to set up a tie with England.This game, too, was not without controversy, though, as Switzerland’s Breel Embolo was sent off after a VAR review for ‘mistaken identity’. The video clearly showed the forward had dived after a tackle from Leandro Paredes. It did not appear it had been a case of Embolo being mistaken for someone else, but rather than booking Paredes, it was Embolo who got a second yellow and was dismissed.That result, which everyone bar subscriber Erik went for, leaves the table looking tight with The Algo top, one pick and one per cent ahead of us ‘Experts’ heading into the final four games. It’s all to play for.OverallaccuracyCorrectpicksBeststreakThe algorithm70%7014TA experts69%6911Wilfred (age 6)67%677Reader picks61%615Stanley the dog41%414How do the predictions work?It’s pretty simple: we will give you some background on each game, players to watch and facts on the two teams. Then we will predict the outcome.We will maintain a leaderboard of how everyone gets on with their predictions (ranked by the percentage they get correct) but we’ll also keep a record of “streaks” — the number of predictions everyone gets right in a row. These streaks also form a crucial part of The Athletic’s interactive Soccer Pick’ems feature, allowing you to make your own picks every round as well.