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World Cup predictions: Brazil vs. Costa Rica, Nigeria vs. Iceland, Serbia vs. Switzerland

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Ballsupski: Football (4:51)

It's day 9 and your favourite dynamic duo are back in Saint Petersburg. They're talking VAR, they're talking 'on this day', they're even talking to Monsieur Le and what dishes he'll be making. What more could you ask for?! (4:51)

Thursday saw Denmark and Australia draw, France hold off Peru and Croatia rip Argentina to shreds.

In terms of our experts, Julien Laurens was the leading light on the day, grabbing a second win of the week with an impressive 60-point performance. Julien not only projected the correct result for Australia-Denmark and France-Peru but also got both scorelines spot-on to secure maximum points for both games.

Gab Marcotti, Ale Moreno, Alex Pareja and Ricardo Puig -- the only expert to accurately pick Croatia over Argentina -- also had impressive showings tallying 40 points apiece.

Friday is a new day though. Will our experts continue their run of good form or will Friday's trio of games knock them back a peg?

The first match on Friday sees Brazil try to get their first win of the tournament against a Costa Rica side who will be eliminated if they lose. Every single one of our pundits backs Tite's men, with ESPN Brasil's Leonardo Bertozzi opting for a 3-1 victory.

UPDATE: It looked like our pundits were going to go home empty handed before Brazil scored twice in stoppage time for a 2-0 win, handing 30 points for the correct scoreline to Shaka Hislop, Caro Guillen and Damian Didonato.

Next up it's a similar story with Nigeria eliminated if they lose to Iceland. Three pundits back the Super Eagles, including our Nigerian journalist Colin Udoh, who says it will be 2-0. Five people predict a draw, with only two going for Iceland.

UPDATE: What a day for Colin and his Nigeria team! A vital win and the correct 2-0 scoreline too! Miguel Pasquel and Shaka Hislop also picked a Super Eagles win.

We finish the day with Serbia against Switzerland. Only ESPN FC television analyst Stevie Nicol thinks Aleksandar Kolarov and Serbia have what it take to grab back-to-back wins, with five predictions of a draw and four opting for a Switzerland victory. Let's hope ESPN Mexico's Miguel Pasquel is not correct about the goalless draw!

UPDATE: Superb from Damian who picks up his second correct prediction with a 2-1 Switzerland win, and he is victorious with a total of 60 points. Mauricio Pedroza also got the scoreline correct, while Leonardo Bertozzi and Manu Martin picked a Swiss win too.

Check out how our pundits got on with their predictions for Thursday'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 Friday?

ESPN Experts panel:

ESPN FC: Shaka Hislop, Stevie Nicol, Paul Mariner
ESPN Deportes: Caro Guillen, Mauricio Pedroza, Manu Martin
ESPN Brasil: Leonardo Bertozzi
ESPN Colombia: Damian Didonato
ESPN Mexico: Miguel Pasquel
Kwese, Africa: Colin Udoh