Jose Mourinho is world-renowned for his managerial prowess, but before the World Cup started, he had a go at predicting which teams would make it out of the group stages.
Truth be told, he threw up a number of surprises. But can we expect anything less than that from the Special One? First, let’s revisit his predictions in this video.
GROUP A: Uruguay (1st), Russia (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: Uruguay (1st), Russia (2nd)
Mourinho gets this one bang on. A lot of fans thought Mohamed Salah was going to be the savior of Egypt at the World Cup, but to be brutally honest, he did virtually nothing. Egypt finished last after a defeat to Saudi Arabia in the final match in Group A. Mourinho is 1 for 1 so far.
GROUP B: Spain (1st), Portugal (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: Spain (1st), Portugal (2nd)
Mourinho continues his perfect streak by predicting Group B. This was a very likely outcome too, so not too many surprises in this one. Had Iago Aspas not scored so late on against Morocco in the final match, Portugal might have finished first instead of La Roja.
GROUP C: France (1st), Denmark (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: France (1st), Australia (2nd)
This was a bold move by Mourinho. France was obviously everyone’s favorite to top the group, but Australia? Really? Many fans thought it was a toss-up between Denmark and Peru for second spot, but the Danish Dynamite booked their ticket to the Round of 16 while Peru beat Australia 2-0 in their last match to send their fans home happy. Mourinho is now 2 for 3, not too bad.
GROUP D: Croatia (1st), Argentina (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: Argentina (1st), Nigeria (2nd)
If it wasn’t for some heroics from Marcos Rojo, Argentina wouldn’t be through to the next round at the World Cup. Nigeria is not making it through to the next round, while Croatia topped the group. Mourinho gets this one wrong here and is back down to 2 for 4.
GROUP E: Brazil (1st), Switzerland (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: Brazil (1st), Switzerland (2nd)
Mourinho gets this group right, partly because he wants Nemanja Matic to have a holiday. It was a great reason to predict the group in the way he did, because he gets it right here. Brazil topped the group after a solid 2-0 win over Serbia, while Switzerland had to grind out a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica.
GROUP F: Sweden (1st), Mexico (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: Germany (1st), Mexico (2nd)
No one saw this one coming, Mourinho included, unless you really bought into the latest trend of a European World Cup winner crashing out in the group stages. Germany finished last in the group after losing 2-0 to South Korea in their last game, while Sweden topped the group after a comprehensive 3-0 victory over El Tri. Mourinho, and everyone for that matter, should now know better than to underestimate Sweden.
GROUP G: Belgium (1st), England (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: England (1st), Belgium (2nd)
The only difficulty with this group for Mourinho was which team out of these two was going to come first and second. No one gave Tunisia or Panama a chance of making it out of the group stages and rightly so. England made a mockery of Panama by beating it 6-1 and Belgium made light work of Tunisia, winning 5-2. In the end, Belgium takes the top spot after winning a snoozefest against England. Can’t really fault Mourinho for his pick in this one.
GROUP H: Colombia (1st), Japan (2nd)
Mourinho’s Prediction: Senegal (1st), Poland (2nd)
Well, this is a bit awkward. This is Mourinho’s worst prediction out of the lot. Largely because neither of these two teams made it out of the group stage. Poland never really clicked at all until the 1-0 victory over Japan, while Senegal didn’t make it through because of the fair play points system.
So, Mourinho finishes with correctly predicting 3 out of 8 groups. In terms of the teams that made the knockout stage, the Special One got 11 out of 16 correct. Not too bad if you ask us.
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