High Level Soccer Predictions
Last updated: 23 June 2026
Analysis by: Trevor Banks
Trevor Banks from freesoccerpredictions.co.uk, covers World Cup predictions, Asian Handicap markets, Over/Under football betting and tactical match previews. His analysis focuses on team form, playing style, market value and responsible betting.
Kansas City, June 26, 2026. On paper, this is the kind of fixture that gets quietly buried under bigger headlines. Tunisia are already out. Netherlands are already through. So why bother watching?
Because football rarely cares about what the table says it should do. Read below my full World Cup 2026 group stage predictions for that clash.
Let’s get the cold facts out of the way first. Tunisia’s tournament unraveled fast. A 5-1 mauling by Sweden in the opener was bad enough, but it cost manager Sabri Lamouchi his job mid-tournament — a brutal, almost unheard-of decision once the World Cup is actually underway. Herve Renard walked into a wildfire and lost his first match in charge too, a 4-0 defeat to Japan that eliminated Tunisia with a game still to play. Two defeats, nine goals conceded, zero points. That’s the resume.
Netherlands, meanwhile, are sitting pretty. A 2-2 opening draw against Japan that looked shaky at the time now reads differently after a 5-1 demolition of Sweden, with Denzel Dumfries terrorizing the right flank and Cody Gakpo finding the kind of form that makes Dutch fans start whispering about deep tournament runs. Ronald Koeman’s side go into Kansas City already through to the knockouts, chasing nothing but tidy goal difference and squad rotation minutes.
So this should be a formality. Except formalities are exactly where football likes to misbehave.
There’s a particular kind of danger in a team with nothing left to lose. No tactical caution, no fear of the consequences, no point in sitting back and absorbing pressure. Herve Renard has had all of a few days on the training ground, barely enough time to stamp his identity on a squad mid-collapse, but he does have players capable of causing problems on their own merit.
Ellyes Skhiri, Tunisia’s captain, has spent this tournament trying to hold a sinking ship together in midfield, and his willingness to apologize publicly after the Japan defeat says a lot about where this squad’s head is at — wounded pride, not surrender. Hannibal Mejbri brings the kind of unpredictability that can unlock a low block in a single moment, and Elias Achouri’s pace down the flank is the sort of weapon that doesn’t need a tactical masterplan to be dangerous, just one mistake from a tired Dutch full-back.
And tired is the operative word. Whatever lineup Koeman sends out, the rhythm of a squad already mentally on the next round rarely matches the hunger of a team playing for nothing but pride and a flight home with their heads held high.
Don’t mistake “nothing to play for” with “nothing at stake.” Koeman has decisions to make before the knockout stage starts, and this is his last live audition. Does Brobbey get more minutes up front? Does Koeman rest Van Dijk and trust his backup centre-backs against a Tunisia side that, even depleted, scored against Sweden? Every Dutch manager going into a World Cup knockout round wants momentum, not minutes ticked over on autopilot.
There’s also a quieter storyline here: goal difference. With third-placed teams from other groups still in the mix for knockout spots, a few extra goals scored or conceded can ripple outward in ways that affect seeding down the line. Netherlands have every incentive to keep their foot down rather than coast.
These two have only met once before, a 1-1 friendly back in 2009, which tells you almost nothing tactically and everything about how rarely these footballing cultures collide. That unfamiliarity adds a small layer of unpredictability — no historical pattern to lean on, no recent rivalry to read into, just two teams meeting for real, for the first time, on the only stage that matters.
Forget the scoreline prediction game for a second and watch these three things instead:
Nothing on the scoreboard changes after this match. Netherlands progress regardless, Tunisia go home regardless. But World Cups are remembered for moments, not just outcomes, and “meaningless” matches have a habit of producing the kind of late surprise that ends up in every highlight reel a decade later. Tunisia have every reason to make this uncomfortable. Netherlands have every reason not to let them.
Kick-off in Kansas City, and one more reminder that in football, the table never tells the whole story. Enjoy my World Cup 2026 group stage predictions!