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World Cup 2010 Analysis: Fabio Capello’s England Are Second Favourites To Reach Knock-Out Stages Behind Brazil, But Ahead Of Spain
Three Lions backed to roar through Group C.

Fabio Capello’s England side has been backed as the second most likely country to qualify for the knock-out stages of the World Cup finals, with only five-time winners Brazil ranked ahead of them.

To coincide with this summer’s tournament in South Africa, Castrol have released the Castrol FIFA World Cup™ Predictor, which measures past team and player performance based on every international match in the last 10 years to calculate the attack and defense ratings of each team competing in the tournament.

The system then simulates the tournament a staggering 100,000 times, before calculating each country’s chances of progressing through the competition.

Goal.com UK took a look at the results, and plucked these statistical gems for analysis...

England|Set to destroy Group C
Chance of progressing 90.4%
Finishing as group winners 65.1%
Third place finish 7.5%
Bottom of the group 2.1%

Brazil| Favourites to progress
Chance of progressing 91.8%
Finishing as group winners 70.6%
Third place finish 7.3%
Bottom of the group 0.9%


Italy | Reigning champions
Chance of progressing 84.9%
Finishing as group winners 53.0%
Third place finish 13.9%
Bottom of the group 1.2%


Spain | The readers favourites
Chance of progressing 88.8%
Finishing as group winners 68.2%
Third place finish 8.2%
Bottom of the group 3.1%