Javier López Peña and Hugo Touchette use graph theory to predict the outcome of the 2010 Football World Cup.
A sophisticated new analysis of team tactics predicts a Spanish win in Sunday's FIFA World Cup final and also shows why England were beaten by Germany.Mathematicians and football supporters Dr Javier López Peña and Dr Hugo Touchette from the School of Mathematical Sciences have collected ball passing data from all of the FIFA World Cup games and generated directed graphs to reveal the nations' different styles of play.The results are available at http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/~ht/footballgraphs/