A victory over Portugal will secure Iran's place in the 2018 World Cup knockout stage. Meanwhile, Portugal just needs a draw to lock in its place in the round of 16. These two World Cup squads square off on Monday at 2 p.m. ET at Mordovia Arena. Portugal enters this marquee matchup as the favorite at -150 on the money line, meaning you'd need to wager $150 on a Portuguese victory to win $100. Iran is +500 (risk $100 to win $500) for this must-win match, while a draw is +260. The Over-Under on total goals scored in this 2018 World Cup fixture is 2. Portugal is 16-1 to win the entire tournament, while Iran has 500-1 World Cup odds to hoist the trophy.
Before you lock in your 2018 World Cup picks, you have 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. Together 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 Soccerbot has been on fire at Russia 2018. It nailed the draw between Australia and Denmark (+265), predicted Argentina and Iceland would end in a draw (+385), and picked Senegal (+220) to knock off Poland, just to name a few of its big wins. Anyone who has followed it is way up.
Now, Soccerbot has digested the film, crunched the numbers and broken down every single player on Iran and Portugal's rosters. The model has released a very strong money-line pick, which it's sharing over at SportsLine.
The model knows Iran enters its final Group B fixture with a chance to reach the World Cup knockout stage for the first time in its history. A win will guarantee Iran's spot in the round of 16 at Russia 2018. And if Iran beats Portugal and Spain fails to defeat Morocco, Iran will top Group B with six points.
With a victory over Portugal on Monday, Iran would have won two group stage games at the World Cup for the first time. However, Iran has never won its final group game in this tournament. And the Iranians have lost six of their seven matches against a European team at the World Cup.
But the model also knows Portugal is led by 33-year-old, all-world forward Cristiano Ronaldo. The Real Madrid star has tallied four goals at Russia 2018 already and has scored at least one goal in four different World Cups.
So which hungry squad wins Monday? Or does it end in a draw? Visit SportsLine now to see the strong Iran-Portugal money-line pick, all from a European soccer expert whose powerful model is up 1,800 percent in less than three years.
