The World Cup is the biggest and most prestigious international football (or, as the Americans like to call it, soccer) tournament in the world. Held every four years, it features the best squads from around the globe competing for the prestigious world champion title.
With the group stage out of the way and only 16 teams remaining at the time of writing, bookmakers are already releasing their odds for who will win.
So who is favored to take home The Jules Rimet Trophy? Let’s find out!
What are the odds?
At the moment, the odds for the 2024 World Cup are heavily weighted in favor of mighty Brazil, but here’s the full breakdown!
- Brazil +220
- Argentina +500
- France +550
- Spain +600
- England +900
- Portugal +1200
- Netherlands +2000
- Croatia +3300
- Japan +6600
- Switzerland +6600
- Morocco +10000
- USA +10000
- Senegal +12500
- South Korea +17500
- Poland +20000
- Australia +20000
With that being said – let’s take a look at why the odds are the way they are and how we feel the tournament will go from here.
First Match – Netherlands v USA
While the Americans are heavily behind their team, there is little to no chance of them causing an upset here. The Dutch are one of the most experienced teams in Europe and they have the quality to outclass their opponents easily.
With massive names like De Jong, Depay, and Blind, the Dutch stand to make a real statement with this first match, and there’s no way we can see them slipping up.
Sure, Pulisic is a boy wonder, and he is performing well at the Blues, and quite frankly, this may be the best American squad to date, but still, the difference in quality is more than obvious to anyone loving the game of football.
Second Match – Argentina v Australia
Even though Gauchos are nowhere near as efficient as we had expected them to be, still, they are the heavy favorites here.
Lionel Messi is going through a rough patch (for him) and is probably just a step away from following the footsteps of all-time greats like Beckham and joining an MLS team, but still, it’s clear as day that he can turn it on any time and lead La Albiceleste to the promised land.
The Socceroos have some good players on their roster, such as Degenek and Ryan, but we don’t really see them threatening the Argentinians in any way, shape or form.
So, all in all, the bookies have got it spot on as far as the World Cup 2024 outright odds are concerned.
Third Match – France v Poland
It doesn’t take a football expert to see that the French are the clear favorites here.
The Poles have some good players such as Lewandowski, but they simply can’t compete with the quality of Griezmann, Mbappe and the rest of the reigning world champions.
And, sure, the French did slip against Tunisia, but they’ve picked themselves right back up and showed everyone why they’re great at this, beating Denmark and Australia.
Also, France’s attack is arguably one of the best in world football at the moment, so we don’t really expect the Poles to cause any kind of upset whatsoever. Even crazytimecasino.nl agrees with us, heavily favoring the French in this matchup.
Fourth Match – England v Senegal
Judging by the odds and what we’ve seen during the group stages, chanting “It’s coming home” finally makes sense for the Three Lions.
Led by a clinical Harry Kane, the English have been able to dominate their opponents in two of the three matches so far. They are showing signs of greatness, and Marcus Rashford is actually scoring goals.
On the other hand, Senegal has had the fortune of being in the easiest group of the tournament, and they’ve taken their chances so far.
However, top 16 seems to be the end of the road for them.
Fifth Match – Japan v Croatia
Here we have arguably the closest match of the round.
Japan is playing stellar football this tourney and the Croats are far from where they were four years ago. They’ve been nothing short of disappointing so far.
Both teams have quality throughout their squads, so this could be a real nail-biter.
But, at the same time, we wouldn’t be surprised if Japan were to take another big W after beating the Spaniards and the Germans in the group stage.
Sixth Match – Brazil v South Korea
There really isn’t much to say here.
Brazil is the best team in world football and they’re playing like it. We’ll forget the gaff against Cameroon. They didn’t need to play that game.
The bottom line is, Neymar, Vinicius, Richarlison and all the other superstars of Selecao are simply unstoppable when they have their heads on the game.
And South Korea, while they managed to squeeze through, probably won’t manage to squeeze anything by Silva and Marquinhos.
Seventh Match – Morocco v Spain
Morocco is one of the most pleasant surprises of the tournament. They beat Belgium and Canada and split the points with the Croats, so here they are. Top 16. But, that’s probably it.
Spain is a good team, no doubt about it, but they’re not looking as menacing as we expected them to be. Japan beat them. They couldn’t beat the Germans. But, they did score seven against Costa Rica, so who knows “which team” will hit the pitch on Tuesday?
But, we still expect them to get an easy win.
Eight Match – Portugal v Switzerland
If there was ever a time for Ronaldo and Portugal to go all the way – it really isn’t this year. Their side of the draw is much, much tougher than the one where Messi resides.
But, Portugal played very well during the group stage, so maybe there’s something there.
The Swiss, on the other hand, are a very defensive team. And, they did beat Portugal just six months ago, so who’s to say they won’t do it again?
We don’t believe they will, but you never know.
Final Thoughts – How will the rest go?
We can’t help but feel like Brazil will walk away with the title.
They are simply that good and it’s highly unlikely they’ll be stopped. We don’t really see them conceding a single goal on their way to the title, if we’re being honest, but will that be the case – no one really knows.