Topic: 2018 World Cup discussion and information thread - page 2. (Read 16642 times)

In every sport everything is possible including in football,but I would never call this group "a death group".Spain and Portugal are much more powerful teams then Morocco and Iran and anything then clear win from Spain&Portugal would be a great surprise.

I know Morocco have at least one big star Medhi Benatia and he is know as one of best defenders in Africa playing in Juventus.They are ranked as 40 on Fifa list and they did not participated in World Cup in last 20 years.

Iran is ranked as 32 on Fifa list,and they have Carlos Queiroz as coach-he is very well known Portuguese coach.They star is Sardar Azmoun who is their main striker,he score 11 goals in qualifications.

ESPN have ranked the top teams to be the winner of the world cup after the group stages draw with Brazil coming first with 20.8 percent ,Spain is the second with 15.9 percent ,Germany third with 10.9 percent , after that Argentina with 7.0 percent, then France with 6.0 percent, Belgium 5.7 percent ,Portugal 5.4 percent ,England 4.9 percent every group is represented with at least one team only Russia's Group A is the only group without a team ranked in the top ten contenders to be the next world cup winners.

The draw was well done with the exception of group A which had the weakest team in Russia most groups seems rather balanced, group D and group F are very interesting, in group F Germany should have no problems qualifying but the second spot is going to be very interesting and I think at the end it may be decided by goals differential.

With Cristiano Ronaldo playing completely opposite to his best mates in club, it will be fun watching the match. Spain being a good team, they shall win.
Even I hope and think they both are going to qualify. Looking forward to see Asensio the new chap play this big game for his country, as his club game impressed many.

In Group F, Beside Germany who will qualify for sure, it will be interesting fight between Sweden and Mexico. Don't know who will, but Sweden will be my personal choice.

It will really be fun to see Cristiano Ronaldo play against his club team mates such as Ramos, Carvajal and even Isco as well, without a doubt those two teams are going to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.

-France, Germany, Brazil and Argentina should easily win their groups
-other teams that almost certainly will qualify for the next round are: Spain, Portugal(Group B), England,Belgium(Group G)

2 groups are really balanced:
Group A 3 teams (Russia, Egypt, Uruguay) for 2 places
Group H: all teams have chances to qualify

Here is the draw of the next round:
A1vsB2    A2vsB1  C1vsD2 C2vsD1 E1vsF2 E2vsF1 G1vsH2 G2vsH1

Group B is very interesting because there are Portugal,Spain,Iran,Morocco.I think this is a death group because without spian rest all teams are equally strong.I am very excited to see Portugal and Spain's match.How ronaldo will face against ramos or isco.Also morocco is a very strong team as they have showed that they are capable of win any matches.I think we will witness some thrilling matches in WC 2018.

Now that the draw is completed and the groups are formed I think we can say that this will be a very interesting World Cup.It is probably too early to say who are the favorites just because it is 7 months to the beginning and the fact that some players may be injured at that time.Portugal without Ronaldo or Argentina without Messi are not the same team.

In group A Russia and Uruguay look like favorites but Egypt will certainly seek their chance.In group B only question is who will take first spot,but it's clear who goes in second round.Group C is interesting with France who is favorit on paper,but it will be hard to play with teams like Denmark/Peru and Australia.In group D we will see again Croatia vs. Iceland who will probably fight for second spot-Argentina is maybe not in best shape now but I think they will win in this group.Nigeria is always play good,but they lack the technical knowledge and discipline in the game.

Group E is very strong with Brazil,Costa Rica,Switzerland and Serbia-I think Brazil will win in this group,and Switzerland or Costa Rica will fight for second spot.In group F Germany is strongest team,and I think Mexico can win over Sweden and Korea and win second spot.

Group G have two team who will dominate and go in next stage and they are Belgium and England,Tunisia and Panama should not be a big problem for these teams.In group H all teams look equaled more or less,but maybe Poland and Columbia have little advantage over Senegal and Japan.

Yes everyone seem that group D is so called "death" group. So for every team it will be hard to go in next faze. Also in some group will be as well the same issue, only for Russia they get the easiest group by me.

Yeah I think Group D will be the though not because it has strong teams but the majority of them have best matched against each other's because Argentina is not the usual dominant selves these days Iceland have been the biggest surprise since the European cup
Croatia have some talented players and they can beat any team.in these group while is Nigeria really good out of Africa this run so this group is really balanced and we may have some surprises at the end and for Russia it is a Great draw they may even make it out of the group England got lucky, Germany got easy group. Also Brasil's groups are the tough I expect some surprises there.

people saying easy next, but don't forget italy.. 
Someone will be fucked. My money on Argentina 

germany is easy to nex stage, runer-up in group F competitive three team mexico , sweden and sout korea have same quality
argentina is easy next stage
group H all team have same quality can competitive match

Having known that quite a bit of big name countries not participating in next years world cup just won't be the same without them.
Italy being one of them having competing every year for the last 60 years is just unbelievable and I think it will affect their country when it starts to be televised since they are not in it they simply won't want to watch it.

I also followed the draw and we will some nice matches, Spain vs Portugal will be interesting to see  .
Being a Belgian guy, I think the draw is favorable. Matches against Tunesia and Panama may not form a problem. The match against England will be the most difficult , but I think Belgium is favorite to win this match also and to win the group.

My thoughts about World Cup groups draw.
Russia got most easiest group. But looking at their squad and how they are playin, I wouldn't be surprised if they will fail again, like in previous World Cup when they also had easy group on paper.

Portugal - Spain will be a great match. Both teams should reach next round without problems.
In C group it will be interesting to watch Denmark - their squad is really talented and they will fight with France for the 1st place.
D groups looks really interesting - Argentina, Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria. Maybe Iceland will amaze world again? Croatia have good squad, Nigeria is underdogs, but when I watched thei friendly match against Argentina, they are playing nice football. And why Argentina and Nigeria always playing in the same group?
E group - Brazil and Switzerland should go further easily.
F is another interesting group. Germany probably will finnish 1st, but fight for 2nd place between Sweden and Mexico (and Korea maybe) will be tough
G group - well, maybe England finally will reach next round. But I don't expect much from this team...
And H group - Poland and Columbia are favorites, Japan is also not bad team. Can't say much about Senegal, didn't saw any their matches :/

Well, the groups are completed. Which group do you guys think is the toughest group? I think Group F with Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea, looks absolutely insane.

Spain and Portugal is going to be a great match, C.Ronaldo will face his teammates and the Barcelona players know him, but I think Portugal has a stronger squad than the one in the WC 2014.

Russia, well, their group looks "easy" on paper, how convenient.

Iceland debuting in a world cup and their first match is against Argentina, I'm confident that Iceland will be very competitive. But Nigeria and Croatia are both really strong squads. Argentina are favorites, but if they keep playing like they did during the qualifiers, then I don't see them advancing to the next rounds.

France does have an easy group, with Australia, Panama and Denmark. Same with Brazil.

Belgium and England are favorites in their group. And last but not least, Group H is probably the second toughest group with Colombia, Senegal, Japan, Poland.

Now we can start to speculate and guess which team are going to advance to Round of 16, for example, if Russia wins group A they will play against the runner-up Group B (could be Portugal or Spain).

Don't look too much into the FIFA rankings, it has always been a joke, most of the time people do not agree with the rankings since they use a formula created by mathematicians that do not know a lot about soccer, most of the time the only ones that are correct are the top 5 teams and even sometimes there are disagreements in those spots as well.

I did not expect to see Poland and Switzerland as far above England. I think England are playing well until now, unless they play in the original competition. In Friendly Match and their World Cup qualifiers look very good, I think is better than Poland and Switzerland.

i hope zlatan ibrahimovic can participate in wold cup 2018
maybe last playing before retire

Whyhas Italy been awarded one pint even though they are not participating in the World Cup and they haven't won any of their last two games which was played in less than a forthnight ago, with the exception of that, I am okay with the top twenty standings as it is.