Brazil are worthy favourites to conquer the world

1 Who's the best bet to win the World Cup from here?
Ian Wilkerson: Edinson Cavani’s injury is a concern but I still think Uruguay are overpriced. There is not that much between the teams in that half of the draw and there is scope for improvement from a team who have made quite a slow start. I’m not going to go mad about France after one good performance, Belgium have their defensive issues and this is not a vintage Brazil.

Liam Flin: Belgium’s golden generation have finally started to gel. They have world-class quality throughout their core and they demonstrated the psychological resilience of champions to come from 2-0 down to win their last-16 tie 3-2 against Japan. Brazil will be hard to beat but Belgium have the players and the belief to progress.

Dan Childs: Brazil are worthy favourites and look the best bet in the tough half of the draw. They started slowly but have looked a different team since grabbing two late goals in the 2-0 success over Costa Rica. Neymar and Philippe Coutinho are linking up to great effect in attack and their defensive prowess is highlighted by nine clean sheets in the last ten games. Russia are overpriced in the other half. They had to dig deep against Spain and won’t have to face anyone tougher than that before the final. Croatia and England are beatable.

Steve Davies: Brazil are just about the best team in a competition where so many sides have been found out. But they’ll have three tough matches before they can lift the trophy and the same applies to France and Uruguay, the two other top-class outfits left. The value, therefore, is probably Uruguay. They look settled, strong and don’t concede many goals while Luis

Suarez is getting better as the tournament goes on. The bottom half of the draw is wide open - I just don’t like any of the four teams in it.

Mark Langdon: Brazil. They will have two tough ties before the final but Tite's men look by far the most balanced side, controlling matches and having the explosiveness in attack with a genuine superstar in Neymar. With 20 wins, four draws and one defeat in their last 25 and just one goal conceded in the last nine, I expect Brazil to see off Belgium and France before a final that should be reasonably comfortable.

2 Who will be the player of the tournament?
IW: Performances in this next two matches are going to be key because I fancy the decision will be made before the final has been completed. It’s an Adidas award and most of their top boot wearers are already at home. A couple more goals from Harry Kane would give him a good shout, but for a speculative poke I’d go for Luis Suarez. Lively performances and a few more goals could see him doing a Paolo Rossi and making a late charge as the Italian did in 1982.

LF: Croatia have found themselves in the considerably softer half of the draw and, with the exception of a lacklustre performance against Denmark last time out, they have played some of the best football in the tournament. Central to that has been midfield maestro Luka Modric. He responded to a missed penalty to score in the shootout and Croatia’s chances could rest on the Real Madrid man. He’s a big price.

Bruce Millington: England fans are daring to dream

Three Lions big favourites to get past Sweden

DC: Brazil are getting better with every game and the key to their improvement is Neymar, who is showing why he is the world’s most expensive footballer. The PSG man started the tournament with doubts over his fitness but the ankle injury sustained in February may have worked in his favour. He came into the tournament fresh and is peaking at the right time. He has had the most shots (23), shots on target (12) and created the largest number of chances (16). The frightening thing is that he may be saving his best performances for the end of the tournament.

SD: If Brazil win it, they’ll give it to Neymar, especially after his heartache of four years ago. Given that I’ve erred towards Uruguay and sponsors seem to like superstars who score goals, it may be worth an interest in Luis Suarez.

ML: Philippe Coutinho has been Brazil's most important player but if Brazil go the distance there will be a clamour to declare this as Neymar's World Cup so he looks a major runner. For a late contender try Paul Pogba at 50-1 - he was absolutely brilliant against Argentina and remains a key man for the second-best side left in Russia.

3 What's the best bet for England's stage of elimination
IW: This is a really interesting market. I’m not anticipating a classic game against Sweden but I think they will battle their way through, so a semi-final defeat might be the value. A clash with either Croatia or Russia would be full of pitfalls which might be overlooked.

LF: England overcame a huge psychological barrier to dispatch Colombia on penalties and they can carry that into the Sweden game. The Swedes are organised and disciplined and it will require patience for England to break them down but Southgate’s side will get the job done. The pressure could get too much in the semi-final though and Russia’s home advantage or Croatia’s midfield quality could be underestimated.

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DC: Colombia was a huge test and, having passed it, I fancy England to reach the final. Sweden can be awkward opponents but their clash with Switzerland was of poor quality. England have underestimated Swedish teams in the past but the current squad look an honest bunch and have extra quality which the Swedes simply don’t possess.

I don’t see much difference to facing Russia or Croatia in the semi-finals but would give England the edge over both. Croatia were poor against Denmark and may have played their best football in the group stage. Should England reach the final they will be outsiders unless Uruguay can squeeze past a couple of the heavyweights.

SD: The final. England are inferior to all four teams in the top half of the draw but superior to the three in the bottom. I’m not getting carried away by what Gareth Southgate’s men have achieved - wins against two rubbish teams, failure to beat two half-decent ones - but defensively England will find few difficulties against Sweden, Croatia or Russia and we know they’ve got that touch of class in Harry Kane if a goal’s required.

ML: Despite being a global market, I suspect UK bookmakers may well be running for cover in the semi-finals and there could be an opportunity to get with Croatia if they are England's opponents in the last four. Gareth Southgate's side should overcome Sweden and would have too much pace for Russia but unless it is Uruguay it's difficult to see them beating France, Brazil or even Belgium in the final.

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