{"id":670897,"date":"2026-06-14T19:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=670897"},"modified":"2026-06-14T19:19:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:19:57","slug":"2026-world-cup-matchday-6-predictions-france-vs-senegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/14\/2026-world-cup-matchday-6-predictions-france-vs-senegal\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup Matchday 6 Predictions Including France vs Senegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, June 16th at the 2026 World Cup sees two of the tournament favorites, defending champions Argentina<\/a>, and the team they defended in the last World Cup final, France vs Senegal, begin their group stage play with compelling matches against Algeria and Senegal respectively. The FIFA World Cup is heating up, and as always, we preview and predict the matchday in detail.<\/p>\n

France vs Senegal (Tuesday in New York\/New Jersey at Metlife Stadium)<\/h2>\n

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France have to be on upset alert<\/a> when they face reigning champions of Africa Senegal on matchday 1. Senegal were not pleased with their two warm-up games, losing to the USA and drawing Saudi Arabia, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t talented. Sadio Mane is still the spiritual and emotional leader of this squad, while Nicolas Jackson (Bayern) is up front in the striker role. Senegal defends well and plays capable football in all phases of play.<\/p>\n

France has more firepower though, they lost to Ivory Coast, and then beat Northern Ireland in their warm-ups. Rayan Cherki could get a start for France, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise, and Kylian Mbappe as the three forwards is a world class attack, and they have players like Jules Kounde in the back as well. Senegal will be a challenge, but France should emerge ahead. Prediction: France<\/strong> 3-2<\/p>\n

Iraq vs Norway (Tuesday in Boston at Gillette Stadium)<\/h3>\n

A win over Sweden and a draw against Morocco is how Erling Haaland and Norway prepared for the World Cup. Against a defensively minded Iraq, managed by Graham Arnold, Norway will go on the attack and aim for a first half goal to secure the 3 points. Haaland pairs with names like Alexander Sorloth and Antonio Nusa in what is one of the world’s strongest attacks.<\/p>\n

Iraq have little hope of countering that,but set pieces and brave defending is their brand of football, as they emerged via the FIFA playoff path to reach this expanded World Cup. There’s no one truly famous on the Iraq squad, and ultimately this feels like a game where Norway is a bad fit for how they play. A draw with Spain, followed by a loss to Venezuela in the warm-ups speaks to the inconsistency of Iraq at times.<\/p>\n

Norway have limited history in World Cups but their golden generation is up there with UEFA’s best sides. Prediction: Norway<\/strong> 3-0<\/p>\n

Argentina vs Algeria (Tuesday in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium)<\/h3>\n

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Argentina didn’t prepare against<\/a> the strongest competition in advance of this World Cup, but they beat almost everyone they play, and they still have the services of the world class Lionel Messi. A veteran team under Lionel Scaloni that has handled massive expectations well. The holders of the Copa America, and the World Cup, they take on an Algeria side that was embraced by locals in Lawrence, Kansas, and is full of belief.<\/p>\n

Like France, Argentina need to be on upset alert here, but their experienced squad are unlikely to take this game for granted. Algeria still rely on the brilliance of Riyad Mahrez, paired with Nabil Bentaleb in the midfield. Ultimately, with Lautario Martinez up top, Argentina should score enough to get the 3 points. Prediction: Argentina<\/strong> 2-1<\/p>\n

Austria vs Jordan (Tuesday in San Francisco at Levi’s Stadium)<\/h3>\n

They are lacking in the striker position but Austria, on a five match unbeaten streak, perform well as a squad and will be favorites when they take on Jordan, an AFC side making their World Cup debut, a side that lacks top club level starpower but are defensively capable at times. Jordan struggled against Colombia and Switzerland in the warm-ups, and as long as Austria and focused and don’t skip a gear, they should start their first matchday with the 3 points. Prediction: Austria<\/strong> 2-0<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, June 16th at the 2026 World Cup sees two of the tournament favorites, defending champions Argentina, and the team they defended in the last World Cup final, France vs Senegal, begin their group stage play with compelling matches against Algeria and Senegal respectively. The FIFA World Cup is heating up, and as always, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":670898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,161,9367,2132],"tags":[798,1273,979,455,1393,32867,450,32626,32815,41,452,539,162,2113,2157],"class_list":["post-670897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international-football","category-predictions","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-algeria","tag-argentina","tag-austria","tag-erling-haaland","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-france","tag-iraq","tag-jordan","tag-lionel-messi","tag-norway","tag-riyad-mahrez","tag-sadio-mane","tag-senegal","tag-world-cup-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670897"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670901,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670897\/revisions\/670901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}