The 2026 World Cup final will pit Spain against Argentina, but the game no one wanted comes first: France against England in Saturday's bronze final. BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton described the third-place play-off as a match “no one really cares about”, with both camps “deflated” and players “probably just want to go home”.
Sutton, who has correctly predicted 65 of 104 tournament games (64%), made his assessment of the main event. “I've seen Argentina numerous times at this tournament and, compared to their teams of the past, this is not an outstanding Argentina side,” he said. “Still, you have to admire their fight and their aggression. They fight like no other team to stay in games and win any way they can. They will throw everything they can at Spain – and of course they have Lionel Messi too.”
“Chris Sutton predicts Spain v Argentina final; England face France in unwanted bronze match. Users lead prediction contest.”
AI predictions, generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat, have been running alongside Sutton and users of the BBC's predictor game. AI correctly backed Argentina to beat England in the semi-finals – one of only two correct semi-final picks. But users still hold an insurmountable lead with 72 correct predictions (71%), against AI's 66 (65%) and Sutton's 65.
For the bronze final, Sutton expects Thomas Tuchel to make changes after England's heartbreaking 2-1 defeat by Argentina. “I still haven't got over it to be honest,” Sutton admitted. “I think we will look back at this tournament and view what Thomas Tuchel did after going 1-0 ahead as one of the worst coaching errors we've possibly ever seen.” He credited Argentina and Lionel Scaloni for turning the semi-final around: “They smelt blood, and they put England away.”
The Mirror reported that the bronze match is “problematic for players, managers, fans, but also statisticians – because it can skew important data trends and even impact Golden Boot tallies”. It will be Didier Deschamps's final match in charge of France, raising the question of whether he will pick Kylian Mbappe or rest his stars. Sutton noted that while the result is hard to predict due to likely reserves, “if it was France's best team against England's best, I would expect Didier Deschamps' side to win”.
As for the final, Sutton sees echoes of Argentina's resilience. BBC Radio 5 Live commentator Ian Dennis said of the adversity Argentina have overcome: “Maybe it is one of those tournaments where their name is written on the trophy.” Sutton added: “I have seen enough of Argentina in this World Cup to think they have been slightly fortunate to get this far.” Still, he acknowledged their fighting spirit – and the presence of Messi – could decide the trophy.
