Football
ESPN staff 6y

World Cup predictions Craig Burley, Rafa Ramos and Nicolas Baier share top spot on final day of round of 16

So two great games see Brazil and Belgium advance to play in the quarterfinals.

Our experts had a scintillating day with their picks as all seven correctly picked both winners; Gab Marcotti, Raph Honigstein and Steph Brantz even grabbing exact scoreline bonus points to boot. Those three finished the day as co-champions on 40 points. 

Monday's experts have laid down a marker. Can Tuesday's panel follow suit with the final two round-of-16 games?

The competition is fierce and provides our pundits one last chance to force their way into the top 10 and qualify for the quarter-final prediction stage. Who will sneak into the top 10 and who will be left on the outside looking in?

The first game sees Sweden take on Switzerland, and it will come as no surprise that our pundits are finding this one tough to call. Four of our pundits go for the Swedes, two for the Swiss and that means three say a draw -- so a penalty shootout then! Not one expert thinks the game could be won by more than the odd goal, with only ESPN FC's Mark Ogden and Raph Honigstein, and ESPN Mexico's Miguel Pasquel, reckoning there will be three goals in the game.

UPDATE: The Swede's Cinderella run continues as Emil Forsberg's deflected effort sees Blågult (The Blue-Yellow) advance past Switzerland and into the quarterfinals by a score of 1-0. 

Four of our nine pundits called for a Sweden victory, with three of them, Craig Burley, Rafa Ramos and Nicolas Baier, all nailing the 1-0 scoreline for a 30-point round. Mark Ogden grabs 10 points, while the other five pundits will be hoping for better from England-Colombia.

Amongst the leaders, Burley and Baier go for Colombia in the second game while Ramos sees England knocking off Los Cafeteros (The Coffee Growers) with or without James Rodriguez. The standings are nicely poised heading into the second game of the day, will one or two of our leaders pull away from the pack or will someone come from nowhere to nip it at the wire?

And we finish the round with Colombia up against England. The story is no different here, with real uncertainty about who will make the quarterfinals. Three go for Colombia, five for England while only Mark says we will head to penalties. ESPN Colombia's Damian Didonato reckons his team will lose 1-0. ESPN Mexico's Miguel Pasquel goes for the most convincing scoreline, 3-1 England, while Nicolas Baier of ESPN Argentina predicts a five-goal thriller in Colombia's favour. We'll sign up right now for that Nicolas!

UPDATE: Bloody hell! England have done the unthinkable and have actually won on penalties.

The Three Lions snap their penalty kick curse and advance past Colombia and into the quarterfinals where they will meet Sweden.

Mark Ogden was the only one who had this one going the distance so he picks up 10 points but without the exact scoreline prediction, he comes up 10 points short of first. On the strength of Sweden's 1-0 victory, Craig Burley, Nicolas Baier and Rafa Ramos all finish the day level on 30 points and will have to split the crown.

That will do it for the round of 16. See you Friday for the first games of the quarter-final stage when Uruguay play France and Brazil take on Belgium.

Check out how our pundits got on with their predictions for Monday'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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