Spain won't win World Cup: Goldman Sachs
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has crunched all the numbers to find out who will win this year's World Cup in Brazil — and it won't be Spain.
Using statistics stretching back to 1960, the New York-based bank are predicting Spain's attempt to win back-to-back World Cup trophies will end with a semi-final loss to Argentina.
In fact, Spain have only a 9.8 percent chance of lifting the Fifa silverware, the bank says.
That puts La Roja — as the Spanish football team is called — just behind Germany (with an 11.4 percent chance) and Argentina, who have a 14.1 percent chance.
Miles ahead, though, are home team Brazil, who have been given a 48.5 percent possibility of being crowned world champions.
But before Spain fans get too disheartened, Goldman Sachs also predicted Brazil to win the 2010 world cup in South Africa.
The bank also points out their prediction is based only on previous track record. It doesn't factor in the quality or potential of current players and is "purely statistical".
This may be small comfort for England fans, who might want to give up now: the Three Lions have been given only a 1.4 percent chance of winning a second world cup.
Even they have better odds than Cameroon, Japan and Algeria, all of whom have exactly zero chance of celebrating in Rio de Janeiro after the July 13th final.
For those who are interested, Goldman Sachs have also released their own World Cup dream team:
Image: Goldman Sachs
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Using statistics stretching back to 1960, the New York-based bank are predicting Spain's attempt to win back-to-back World Cup trophies will end with a semi-final loss to Argentina.
In fact, Spain have only a 9.8 percent chance of lifting the Fifa silverware, the bank says.
That puts La Roja — as the Spanish football team is called — just behind Germany (with an 11.4 percent chance) and Argentina, who have a 14.1 percent chance.
Miles ahead, though, are home team Brazil, who have been given a 48.5 percent possibility of being crowned world champions.
But before Spain fans get too disheartened, Goldman Sachs also predicted Brazil to win the 2010 world cup in South Africa.
The bank also points out their prediction is based only on previous track record. It doesn't factor in the quality or potential of current players and is "purely statistical".
This may be small comfort for England fans, who might want to give up now: the Three Lions have been given only a 1.4 percent chance of winning a second world cup.
Even they have better odds than Cameroon, Japan and Algeria, all of whom have exactly zero chance of celebrating in Rio de Janeiro after the July 13th final.
For those who are interested, Goldman Sachs have also released their own World Cup dream team:
Image: Goldman Sachs
Don't miss stories about Spain, join The Local on Facebook and Twitter.
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