{"id":671142,"date":"2026-06-21T02:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=671142"},"modified":"2026-06-21T02:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:34:57","slug":"2026-world-cup-matchday-12-predictions-including-argentina-vs-austria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/21\/2026-world-cup-matchday-12-predictions-including-argentina-vs-austria\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup Matchday 12 Predictions Including Argentina vs Austria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tournament favorites Argentina<\/a> and France began their first matches with victories. How will they fare in game 2 of the group stage on matchday 12 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

Argentina vs Austria (Monday June 22th in Dallas)<\/h2>\n

A Lionel Messi hat trick was just the trick for Argentina to secure all 3 points (and maintain a clean sheet) against Algeria on matchday 1. Messi’s brilliance, and an effort that stifled the attack of Algeria after early drama, showed Argentine remain a top contender to repeat as World Cup champions. Austria were 3-1 winners against Jordan in a result that was expected, but came late in the game. Argentina have more upside and given their strong form on the first matchday, should leave this match with all three points.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Argentina<\/strong> 3-1<\/p>\n

France vs Iraq (Monday June 22nd in Philadelphia)<\/h3>\n

The individual quality of France, with a brace from Kylian Mbappe, was enough to overcome Senegal 3-1. Iraq are well drilled but still conceded four goals against a strong Norway attack. I shudder to think what France can do against them as they aim to secure the knockout phase. France should enjoy their afternoon on matchday 2.<\/p>\n

Prediction: France<\/strong> 5-0<\/p>\n

Norway vs Senegal (Monday June 22nd in New York\/New Jersey)<\/h3>\n

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The Erling Haaland<\/a> led Norway attack is real, Senegal were respectable against France but still suffered a defeat. This is a more competitive game, and Senegal can threaten Norway’s backline in a way that Iraq could not, but this golden generation of Norwegian players look like genuine World Cup dark horses at the moment.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Norway<\/strong> 3-2<\/p>\n

Jordan vs Algeria (Monday June 22nd in San Francisco)<\/h3>\n

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Algeria came away from their loss to Argentina a bit shellshocked. Jordan continue to look like one of the weaker sides in this tournament, and unlike some of the other debutants, they are not capable of efficiently parking the bus for 90 minutes. Riyad Mahrez and co. look to get back on track with 3 points and a routine win here.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Algeria<\/strong> 3-0<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tournament favorites Argentina and France began their first matches with victories. How will they fare in game 2 of the group stage on matchday 12 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Argentina vs Austria (Monday June 22th in Dallas) A Lionel Messi hat trick was just the trick for Argentina to secure all 3 points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":671146,"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":[798,1273,979,455,1393,32867,450,32626,32815,961,41,452,2113,2157],"class_list":["post-671142","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-kylian-mbappe","tag-lionel-messi","tag-norway","tag-senegal","tag-world-cup-predictions"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671142","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=671142"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671147,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671142\/revisions\/671147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}