FIFA 2017 Confederations Cup Predictions Revisited

By on July 4, 2017

Football Every Day’s resident humorist-turned-forecaster Richard Lewis made his predictions for the Confederations Cup 2017 over a month ago and most of them were pretty spot on! Of course, the tournament’s eight-team format makes it fairly easy for forecasters, while larger tournaments like the the Euros are always much harder to predict spot-on. Plus, backing the Germans is always a fairly safe bet when it comes to international tournaments, with striker Lars Stindl scoring the winner in St Petersburg against Copa America champions Chile. Despite most of their big hitters being left at home, the Germans still lifted another piece of international silverware. Joachim Low’s men return to number one in the world after captain Julian Draxler lifted the prelude trophy to the World Cup and this victory comes days after the efficient Under-21s secured the European Cup.

Richard correctly predicted both group tables, apart from swapping Australia and Cameroon in Group B, and aced the knockout stages. If he were to have predicted the third place game he would have gone with winners Portugal as well!

These were his predictions for the 2017 Confederations Cup in full:

Group A

Predicted:

1) Portugal (Q)
2) Mexico (Q)
3) Russia
4) New Zealand

Actual:

1) Portugal (Q)
2) Mexico (Q)
3) Russia
4) New Zealand

Group B

Predicted:

1) Germany (Q)
2) Chile (Q)
3) Cameroon
4) Australia

Actual:

1) Germany (Q)
2) Chile (Q)
3) Australia
4) Cameroon

Semi-Finals

Portugal v Chile

Predicted: Chile win

Actual: Chile win

Germany v Mexico

Predicted: Germany win

Actual: Germany win

Final

Chile v Germany

Predicted: Germany win

Actual: Germany win

This will be the first time in FIFA Confederations Cup history that three national teams from any single confederation (Russia, Germany and Portugal) are represented, so Europe have a good shout of winning!

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.