A wild Wednesday gave us a little bit of everything as the Round of 32 continued with some thrilling comebacks, historic milestones, and a straight red card that will have major implications moving forward.<\/p>\n
First up, Harry Kane delivered another classic with a second-half brace to lead England back from down 1-0 to beat DR Congo 2-1 in 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
The winning goal in the 86th minute left Kane one back of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in the race to be the tournament\u2019s leading goal scorer.<\/p>\n
More importantly, it was the goal we needed to extend our streak to 10 straight FanDuel Best Bet winners.<\/p>\n
The Three Lions will play Mexico in the Round of 32.<\/p>\n
England is a -140 favourite to advance at FanDuel.<\/p>\n
The hosts Mexico, which have won all four of their tournament matches including a 2-0 win over Ecuador in the Round of 32, are +116 to pull off the upset.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the USA\u2019s hopes to advance as another host nation took a hit when Falorin Balogun was shown a straight red card in a 2-0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina.<\/p>\n
Balogun, who scored the first goal for the USA and leads the Americans with three goals in as many appearances, will miss a Round of 16 showdown with Belgium.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s only the fourth player in tournament history to score a goal and receive a record card in the same match, and the first since Zinedine Zidane versus Italy in the 2006 Final that we all remember so fondly.<\/p>\n
It was certainly another stroke of good fortune for a Belgium side that appeared headed home until the final moments of its Round of 32 clash versus Senegal.<\/p>\n
Belgium trailed Senegal 2-0 in the 85th minute and could be found as high as 350-to-1 to advance live at FanDuel.<\/p>\n
Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans scored twice in a span of four minutes to tie the match, and Tielemans scored a penalty in extra time to seal the comeback.<\/p>\n
Senegal was eliminated despite being the first African team to score 10 goals in a single tournament on soccer\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
Belgium advanced and will play an American side that will be without its most productive scoring threat.<\/p>\n
Still, the USA opened as the slight favourite and is currently -118 to advance at FanDuel.<\/p>\n
Belgium is -102 to advance.<\/p>\n
All of that from a wild Wednesday has reset expectations as the Round of 32 continues with three more matches on the schedule today.<\/p>\n
Pre-tournament favourite Spain will kick the day off versus Austria, while Switzerland and Algeria will meet later tonight in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Portugal will face Croatia in Toronto in a match that has the city buzzing this morning.<\/p>\n
Will Toronto host the final tournament match in the legendary career of Cristiano Ronaldo?<\/p>\n
Or will Portugal advance as the favourite versus Croatia?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s set the stage for today\u2019s action in this Morning Coffee for Thursday July 2nd, 2026.<\/p>\n
What Are The Odds Ronaldo Plays His Final Match On Soccer\u2019s Biggest Stage Tonight In Toronto?<\/p>\n
While the prospect of the legendary Ronaldo playing his final tournament match in Toronto is fascinating, the expectation is that his journey will continue through to the Round of 16.<\/p>\n
Portugal is up to -300 to advance versus Croatia.<\/p>\n
That number represents a 75 per cent implied chance.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, only five teams have shorter odds to lift the trophy than Portugal at +1600 at FanDuel.<\/p>\n
That list includes the pre-tournament favourite Spain, which is now the third choice to lift the trophy at +650.<\/p>\n
France is the favourite to win the tournament at +185.<\/p>\n
Argentina is now the second choice at +410.<\/p>\n
Neither France nor Argentina can play an opponent that is among the top six choices to lift the trophy until the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, England could potentially have to get past Mexico and Brazil just to set up a semi-final showdown versus Argentina.<\/p>\n
If Portugal and Spain both advance as expected today, they will face off in an epic Round of 16 showdown.<\/p>\n
First up, they\u2019ll need to take care of their business today and extend a streak of six straight favourites advancing in the Round of 32 dating back to Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
For Ronaldo, today\u2019s match versus Croatia could be his last on soccer\u2019s biggest stage, but it\u2019s also a chance to do something he\u2019s never done before. <\/p>\n
Ronaldo has never scored in seven career knockout matches on soccer\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
He is one of only three players to attempt at least 20 shots without scoring in the knockout stage since 1966.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo has already made history as the second oldest player to score in tournament history.<\/p>\n
At 41-years-old, he should be motivated to end his knockout stage drought versus Croatia today in Toronto.<\/p>\n
What are the odds that Ronaldo scores for Portugal?<\/p>\n
FanDuel has Ronaldo at -105 to score an anytime goal.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo to score the first goal is +300.<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that Ronaldo is by far the most popular anytime goal scorer pick in tonight\u2019s matches.<\/p>\n
Per the FanDuel traders, Ronaldo has accounted for 81.3 per cent of the anytime goal stakes in his match.<\/p>\n
However, Croatia has been a popular pick to pull off the upset at +225 to advance.<\/p>\n
Per the FanDuel traders, 77.7 per cent of the bets and 62.2 per cent of the stakes are on Croatia to advance.<\/p>\n
The majority of FanDuel bettors are banking on tonight marking Ronaldo\u2019s final tournament match.<\/p>\n
All eyes will be on Toronto tonight to see if that will be the case as Portugal and Croatia meet in a highly anticipated Round of 16 showdown.<\/p>\n
As for a FanDuel Best Bet, make sure to follow me @Domenic_Padula on X.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t locked in a play just yet, and I made be headed to Toronto Stadium later tonight to watch Ronaldo and Portugal take on Croatia in person.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, the next bet is a winning bet and we can extend a streak of 10 straight footy winners.<\/p>\n
Have a great day, everyone! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wild Wednesday gave us a little bit of everything as the Round of 32 continued with some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-775641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}