It may break the hearts of fans following the other teams, but Brazil will win the World Cup, according to a computer simulation.

Scientists and statisticians at the University of Ulster have carried out an analysis of every match taking place in Korea and Japan over the next month.

The computer was programmed with the Fifa world rankings, the distance teams have to travel to compete, the effects of having to switch between Japan and Korea and the amount of rest between matches.

The simulation was run 2000 times and the result was a Brazil-Italy final, with the South Americans coming out triumphant.

Head versus heart

Brazil fans will be cheering predicts computer

The aim of the study is to find out whether computers are better than humans when it comes to prediction.

The second part of the experiment pitted five football-mad professors against the computer.

Using good old-fashioned punditry, based on their knowledge of the teams, players and managers, the scientists predicted Argentina would win in a final against Italy.

"The result of our research is a classic case of head versus heart. Number crunching against subjective judgement," Dr Peter O'Donoghue told the BBC programme Go Digital.

Betting on Brazil

"It will be interesting to see how the tournament pans out and whether the human brain or the computer is the best way of analysing such unpredictable contests as a World Cup," he said.

Dr O'Donoghue is putting his faith in the computer.

"In all honesty I think the simulation will be closest. Yesterday for the first time in my life I went to a betting shop and put �20 on a Brazil-Italy final," he said.

For England fans it isn't all bad news. The computer did predict that Sven Goran Eriksson's team would get through its tough first group to the second stage of the competition.

Unfortunately the good news ends there, with the computer predicting England will lose to France in the knockout stage.