How time flies when you're having fun. The first round of games comes to a close today!
But first let's all hail Ale Moreno who stormed to victory on Monday with two correct scorelines and a correct result to finish with 70 points (out of a possible 90) and 20 points more than Manu Martin and Ed Dove. It's good to see out pundits back on form after a disappointing Sunday!
Onto Tuesday as the four nations in Group H finally get on the pitch, and we start with Colombia up against Japan. Not one of our pundits reckons Japan can follow the lead of fellow Asian nation Iran and get their campaign off to a winning start. In fact, eight go for a Colombia victory, but in general by a narrow margin. But maybe the points will go to Gab Marcotti or ESPN Argentina's Nicolas Baier, who both go for 0-0.
UPDATE: No points for anyone with Japan beating ten-man Colombia 2-1.
Last but not least to strut their stuff are Poland and Senegal. So far every African nation has lost their opening game, so it's not looking too positive for their head coach -- former Birmingham and Portsmouth player Aliou Cisse. Our pundits seem to disagree, though, with only Nicolas and ESPN Colombia's Damian Didonato going for the Poland win. Three people opt for Senegal and that means five reckon it will be a draw.
UPDATE: It was 2-1 to Senegal, so Julien Laurens takes home 30 points for the correct scoreline, while Gab Marcotti and Stewart Robson got the result correct.
We begin round two of the group games with hosts Russia against Egypt -- who will surely have Mo Salah fit and available again. Egypt know that anything other than a victory here will leave their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread, and Damian joins Craig Burley and Ed Dove of Kwese in Africa in thinking they can pull it off. Surprisingly only Stewart Robson has backed Russia to make it back-to-back wins.
UPDATE: Hosts Russia continue to surprise and get the better of Egypt and our experts in Tuesday's finale with a 3-1 win. Only Stewart Robson took home points from the third game of the day and the ex-Arsenal man was the only one on our panel to predict two of the three games on the day correctly.
In fact, Robson (20pts) Gab Marcotti (10pts) and daily winner Julien Laurens (30pts) were the only ones to score in another day full of upsets. Julien wins the low-scoring affair on the strength of nabbing 30 points for picking Senegal over Poland and nailing the 2-1 exact scoreline of that match.
It will be back to the drawing board for our panel of experts, who after a down day with their predictions will be looking to bounce back in a big way with Portugal vs. Morocco, Uruguay vs. Saudi Arabia and Spain vs. Iran on the docket.
Check out how our pundits got on with their predictions for Monday's games and remember to join the pundits' league in Match Predictor.
We've got our top talent on hand from England, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Australia and Africa -- many of whom will be based out in Russia for the tournament -- to analyse each and every one of the 64 matches.
We'll score our experts just as we do in the Match Predictor -- 10 points for correct result, with a bonus 20 points for getting the scoreline right too. Who will come out on top on Tuesday?
ESPN Experts panel:
ESPN FC: Gab Marcotti, Craig Burley, Julien Laurens, Stewart Robson
ESPN Deportes: Alex Pareja, Kenneth Garay
ESPN Argentina: Nico Baier
ESPN Colombia: Damian Didonato
ESPN Mexico: John Sutcliffe
Kwese, Africa: Ed Dove