A weekly look at how our football predictions performed — wins, losses, and lessons for Nigerian bettors.
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Nigerian Matchday Editorial•Aug 5, 2026
A weekly look at how our football predictions performed — wins, losses, and lessons for Nigerian bettors.
The World Cup 2026 knockout rounds did not slow down for anybody last week. The Round of 16 wrapped up with Spain edging Portugal in the dying minutes and Belgium blowing the USA off the park in Seattle, Argentina survived a genuine Egyptian scare in Atlanta, and by the time the quarterfinals kicked off, France and Spain both booked semi-final spots. Six of our key tips from July 6–12 are checked below against the final scores — favourites mostly delivered, but not without a couple of hard lessons.
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### The Scorecard
Here are six tips from last week’s match preview and accumulator articles, checked against the actual results:
Overall accuracy this week: 4/6 tips landed (67%)
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### Best Call of the Week
France to Win vs Morocco at ~1.57 was the standout pick. Kylian Mbappé had missed a first-half penalty and Morocco’s defence, the meanest in the tournament, had conceded almost nothing since the group stage. On paper it looked like exactly the kind of tight, low-scoring quarterfinal where an upset creeps in. We backed France anyway, on the read that a squad this deep would eventually find a way through even after missing a big chance — and Mbappé did just that, curling home the opener in the 60th minute before Ousmane Dembélé doubled the lead. France won 2–0, comfortable in the end despite the early scare. The value was in trusting the underlying quality over a single missed spot-kick.
### The One That Got Away
Both Teams to Score in Portugal vs Spain was the miss. The logic was sound — Cristiano Ronaldo has a habit of finding a goal in the biggest moments, and Spain’s defence had never faced a forward of his calibre in this tournament. In the end Spain’s back line held firm for the full 90 plus stoppage time, and Mikel Merino’s injury-time winner meant Portugal never scored at all. Next time, a match with a defence as disciplined as Spain’s deserves more weight on the clean-sheet angle before backing goals at both ends, however tempting the star name at the other end looks.
### What This Means for Your Betting
The pattern from last week is simple: straight match-result bets on the stronger side landed four times out of five attempts, while the two supporting markets — BTTS and Draw No Bet on the underdog — both lost. When a team is unbeaten and defensively excellent, as Spain were all tournament, betting against their clean sheet is a tougher sell than it looks on paper. For consistent prediction tools to cross-reference our tips, see our guide to the best football prediction sites in Nigeria.
### This Week’s Outlook
The semi-finals are next, and with only two matches left before the final, every tip carries more weight than at any other stage of the tournament. Expect tighter markets and shorter odds as the bigger nations collide. Get ahead of the week with today’s football betting tips, updated every morning.
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