One of the most thrilling World Cups ever comes to an end on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET when Croatia and France square off with the title on the line. When the action started a month ago, France opened at 10-1 to win the entire tournament, while Croatia was a long shot at 60-1. Now, France enters the 2018 World Cup final as a -110 money line favorite, meaning you'd need to bet $110 on a French victory to win $100. Croatia is the underdog at +350, while a draw in regulation returns +230. To bet on which team wins outright, France is -220 and Croatia is +180. The over-under for total goals scored in the 2018 World Cup finals is 2.
Before you lock in your 2018 World Cup picks for France vs. Croatia, you need to see what European football expert David Sumpter has to say. Sumpter is an applied mathematician who wrote "Soccermatics," a book that explains how math works inside the sport. Along with other experienced analysts, Sumpter developed the powerful Soccerbot model.
The Soccerbot reads current odds and all team performance data, calculates key metrics and predicts upcoming matches. In nearly three seasons since its inception, the Soccerbot is up an incredible 1,800 percent on bookmakers' closing odds.
The model is crushing the World Cup knockout stage. It strongly recommending Croatia as an underdog at +135 against England in the semifinals. The result: Croatia stamped its ticket to the Russia 2018 final with a thrilling 2-1 victory.
It also correctly predicted draws in regulation for Spain-Russia (+280), Croatia-Denmark (+225) and England-Colombia (+215) and was all over France beating Uruguay in regulation to reach the semifinals, not to mention Brazil and Belgium cruising in their Round of 16 matchups, just to name a few of its big calls. Anyone who has followed it is way, way up.
Now, the Soccerbot has crunched the numbers, analyzed the France vs. Croatia odds, and locked in its picks. We can tell you the model is leaning Under 2 goals, but its much stronger play for the 2018 World Cup final is on the money line. And you can only see that 2018 World Cup pick over at SportsLine.
The model knows Croatia qualified for its first FIFA World Cup final in just its fifth appearance at the tournament. The Croats came from behind and upset favored England in Wednesday's semifinal that was decided in extra time. Croatia became the first team to play extra time in three consecutive World Cup matches since England in 1990.
Croatia went down early, but equalized behind Ivan Perisic's second-half goal to force extra time. Perisic has now been involved in 10 goals at major tournaments for Croatia (six goals and four assists).
The model also knows France is unbeaten in its last five meetings against Croatia, winning three times. Les Bleus came from behind to beat Croatia 2-1 in the semifinals of the 1998 World Cup.
France is ahead of schedule as the second-youngest World Cup squad continues to shine. Striker Kylian Mbappe, who has three goals, and attacking fullbacks Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard give Les Blues a lethal trio all 22 years of age or younger, and they've meshed well with established stars like Antoine Griezmann, who has scored or assisted 11 goals in nine knockout games at major tournaments.
So which hungry nation wins the World Cup final? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong Croatia vs. France money-line pick, all from a European football expert whose powerful model is up 1,800 percent in less than three years.
