The worlds most exciting tournament is back again, as the 2018 world cup in Russia is just months away. The greatly anticipated draw occurred today which saw all of the competing nations placed into their respective groups. Here at Blasting News, we take a look at each group as we get ready for sports most popular competition.
The World Cup draw saw an interesting change of format within this year's edition, as explained by English pundit Gary Lineker. Each group is only allowed to have one country from a particular confederation, however, European countries were allowed a maximum of two nations per group and a minimum of one.
With that explained, here are the eight groups and the 32 nations competing in the World Cup:
Group A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt and Saudi Arabia
Group A consists of the hosts, Russia, who will take on Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the World Cup, an absolutely thrilling contest. Interestingly, this fixture sees the two lowest ranked teams in the competition come up against each other. Therefore, we wouldn't expect either of these to make it out of the group.
Group B: Portugal, Spain, Iran and Morocco
This group sees a fierce geographical rivalry and may be considered one of the most exciting groups within the competition. This rivalry is Portugal v Spain. The Spaniards will be looking to improve upon their last World Cup outing, as they failed to make it out of the group stages in Brazil 2014.
Group C: France, Peru, Denmark and Australia
Tournament favourites, France, have been gifted a fairly easy group as they look to stroll to the knockout stages with minimal effort. An Eriksen inspired Denmark will most likely join France when taking the Danish midfielders scintillating club form into account.
Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland and Nigeria
Despite having one of the worlds most talented footballers, Argentina could struggle at this World Cup. La Albiceleste may boast an impressive attack, however, the defence is what lets them down and nearly cost them a place in this competition. Iceland is also a force to be reckoned with by shocking Football fans across the world with their performance in France during the Euro's.
Will they do it again?
Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia
Much like Iceland, Costa Rica experienced a success story of their own in the World Cup of 2014. They managed to top the 'Group of Death' including the likes of Uruguay, Italy and well, England. However, they are unlikely to repeat this success due to the inclusion of Brazil within the group. If any team has a player like Neymar on their side, they're always going to stand a good chance.
Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea
The world champions will look to pick up some early routine wins within the tournament as they aim their sights to the latter stages of the tournament. However, this group may become slightly more interesting if a certain Swedish striker was to come out of international retirement and to play for 'Zweden'.
Group G: Belgium, England, Tunisia and Panama
A group of two teams that are renowned to fail and underperform at tournaments, this group may provide some surprises. England is currently experiencing some turmoil, failing to score in both of their recent international friendlies. Whilst Belgium boasts an impressive squad, they have failed to deliver on multiple occasions and with Roberto Martinez as manager, we wouldn't expect that to change.
Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan
Poland appears to be the favourite within this group, despite Colombia consisting of some impressive individual talent. However, the winner of this group is unlikely to possess the same level of footballing calibre to compete with other teams in the knockout stages and is therefore likely to exit the competition fairly early.
