We’ve been waiting for four years, and now it’s finally here, just one day until we get underway in Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I’m carrying on looking through the groups and today we’ll be having a look at two very interesting groups, E and F.
GROUP E GROUP F
FRANCE ARGENTINA
HONDURAS IRAN
ECUADOR BOSNIA
SWITZERLAND NIGERIA
OPENING FIXTURES
GROUP E- SWITZERLAND V ECUADOR (SUNDAY 5PM)
GROUP E- FRANCE V HONDURAS (SUNDAY 8PM)
GROUP F- ARGENTINA V BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (SUNDAY 11PM)
GROUP F- IRAN V NIGERIA (MONDAY 8PM)
TEAMS
FRANCE- France were rocked with the news that Frank Ribery will miss the World Cup, but they have enough players on form who can help them have a successful tournament. Ribery’s replacement Remy Cabella is in the middle of a transfer saga involving Montpellier and Newcastle United, so a good World Cup for him could see his price tag shoot up. Cabaye, Remy and Benzema have all had good seasons at their clubs so will make France quite a threat for any team.
HONDURAS– Having only seen Honduras play a friendly game against England last week I don’t expect them to set the world alight at this World Cup. A very dirty team with not a lot of attacking threat. Quite solid at the back but will struggle in the group stage. I expect them to finish bottom of the group.
ECUADOR– Gave England a good game and looked quite dangerous on the counter attack. It’s a straight battle for second place in the group with Switzerland so when the two teams meet that will be a decisive game I feel.
SWITZERLAND- Switzerland somehow find themselves 6th in the official World rankings, which will not be on show when the tournament gets under way. I expect them to progress to the last 16 but if results are effected by conditions then it could be Ecuador who progress with France at their expense.
ARGENTINA- Argentina remain one of the favourites to win in Brazil, mainly down to the fact that they have a lot of in form players, Messia, Aguero, Higuain etc. They have the easiest group by far so if they score a lot of goals they will carry that confidence into the knockout rounds and will scare a lot of big team. They have a stable formation at the moment but still look a little bit weak at the back, however, it could be a case of you score one, we’ll score two. Dangerous opponents.
BOSNIA- The 21st best team in the world according to the rankings, if they can hold their nerve and make minimal mistakes, they will join Argentina in the last 16. They had a safe qualifying campaign with not many defeats. Look tight at the back and can offer decent threat going forward. Should comfortably beat Iran and Nigeria.
IRAN– Sadly just making up the numbers here. Iran will be battling with Nigeria to avoid finishing bottom in the group. The don’t offer a lot in any position and will find it difficult to stop Argentina scoring 4 or 5 past them
NIGERIA- Nigeria have some established players in their squad, John Obi Mikel, Peter Odemwingie, Joseph Yobo and of course Shola Ameobi. They had a decent qualifying campaign beating Ethiopia in the last round but have struggled in their warm up matches against Scotland and USA. They won’t offer much of a threat but I can see them beating Iran to third place in the group.
One quite open group here and the other very predictable in terms of the outcome. Argentina could be a big threat this year.. Tomorrow morning I’ll be looking at the final 2 groups and you will be able to see all my predictions for this World Cup.
Tee Time 