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ESPN staff 6y

World Cup predictions: Miguel Pasquel claims victory on a poor day for pundits

The knockout rounds got off to an explosive start as France sent Lionel Messi and Argentina packing after a seven-goal thriller while Uruguay, thanks to a delicious double from Edinson Cavani, knocked Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal out of the tournament.

In terms of our experts, it was Liverpool legend Stevie Nicol who grabbed the plaudits. Stevie was two for two in picking winners on Saturday and added a 20-point bonus to boot by nailing the 2-1 scoreline of Uruguay-Portugal to win in style.

Our experts are back for more on Sunday.

The first game of the day looks as if it could be a straightforward affair -- on paper at least -- as fancied Spain meet hosts Russia

Spain have yet to hit top gear in Russia but led by Diego Costa and Isco, most fancy the Spaniards to run riot here.

Nine of our 10 pundits are backing the Spaniards to win -- all by at least two goals -- while Miguel Pasquel believes a raucous home environment will help the Russians go toe-to-toe with Spain for the full 120 minutes. Miguel thinks the Cinderella story will end in penalties but 1-1 is his scoreline prediction.

UPDATE: Well the surprise 1-1 scoreline after extra time means Miguel walks away with a fantastic 30 points -- and no one else scores anything!

The second game of the day, Croatia vs. Denmark,  features some of the top midfielders in the world. Croatia's Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic face a worthy adversary in Denmark and Tottenham ace Christian Eriksen.

Our experts are unanimous with their picks here as all 10 go for streaking Croatia against the Scandinavians. The most popular scoreline picks are 2-0 and 2-1, with four experts apiece opting for each respective score. Manu Martin (3-0) and Mark Ogden (3-1) round out the predictions in a clean sweep for Croatia.

UPDATE: What a strange day and another excellent pair of matches at the World Cup. Our pundits certainly didn't see it coming -- everyone went for Croatia! The 1-1 draw means that Miguel is the ONLY pundit to score any points - congratulations!  

Check out how our pundits got on with their predictions for Saturday's round-of-16 games and remember to join the pundits' league in Match Predictor.

We've got our top talent on hand from England, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Australia and Africa -- many of whom will be based out in Russia for the tournament -- to analyse each and every one of the 64 matches.

We'll score our experts just as we do in the Match Predictor -- 10 points for correct result, with a bonus 20 points for getting the scoreline right too. Who will come out on top?

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