The group stage is over. This means that 74 of the 104 games of this mammoth World Cup have been played. However, only 16 of the 48 teams have been eliminated so far. For everyone else, the dream of lifting the trophy lives on. Everything is still open in the Opel Post prediction game – although the majority of the points have already been awarded. So far, ‘dain’ is leading the way.

173 points after 74 games – a strong haul. But the competition is breathing down his neck. ‘Luci10’ is just two points behind. On Saturday evening, both scored almost in lockstep: they predicted England’s 2-0 win against Panama exactly, and for Jordan against Argentina (1-3) and Croatia against Ghana (2-1), both were right with the right goal difference. ‘spuddel’ in third place is also still in touching distance 170 points. Three points are quickly made up with 30 games to go.

The crucial phase begins

However, it is also a tricky tournament. Who can reliably assess the performance of Uzbekistan, the DR Congo or Iraq? Interestingly, both ‘dain’ and ‘Luci10’ collected their most points in games involving Panama, Haiti or Scotland – not exactly the nations that every football fan has on their radar all the time. ‘dain’, on the other hand, has so far gone empty-handed when Cape Verde played. Of all things, the underdog has been one of the surprises of this World Cup so far.

One thing is certain: Neither in the World Championship nor in the Opel Post predictor have been decided yet. In Germany, there is already speculation about a possible round of 16 tie against top favourite France. But before that, the round of 32 awaits. Julian Nagelsmann’s team will face Paraguay there.

Our leaders after the group stage

1. dain
2. Luci10
3. Spuddel