The Big Names Who Didn't Make It



Perhaps unsurprisingly, simulations indicate no country has higher odds of winning the tournament than current champions Germany, leading the table with a likelihood of 24 percent. Dele Alli found an early goal but it wasn't enough for the Three Lions in the round of 16. Poland's top scorer, Rober Lewandowski reached the back of the net six minutes before the halftime break and in dramatic fashion, Maciej Rybus netted the winner in the 89th minute to advance to the quarterfinal round where the Polish side met the Brazilians.

Outside of FIFA World Cup tournaments, the Trinidad & Tobago National Football Team has qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup on eight occasions with their best performance in 2000 after reaching the semi-finals, finishing 3rd. Brazil are currently the most successful team in the Soccer World Cup boasting five titles and are also the only World Cup team to have played in all 20 tournaments from 1930 - 2014.

France blew Belgium away in the semi-finals and will go into Sunday's final as obvious favorites. Star man: Harry Kane - The Tottenham striker has continued his fine goalscoring form this year, having netted 56 times for club and country in 2017. In a year where Australia finished third in the Confederations Cup, including a 1-0 win over Brazil, the Socceroos prevailed over New Zealand to set-up a home and away qualification tie against Uruguay.

I am writing this answer after the Round of 16, which means that defending champs Germany & erstwhile winners Spain, Argentina have already made their exit primarily due to their lack luster performance. Portugal will be heading into the FIFA World Cup 2018 as the reigning European champions and with a much better squad and reputation than the side that crashed out in the group stages last time around.

The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Crafty finals will be held in France from 7 June to 7 July. The UK's two main free-to-air channels - BBC and ITV - are sharing out the World Cup coverage very fairly indeed, with an equal number of group stage and knockout games and live coverage of the World Cup final on both channels.

Talking of goals, the oldest goal scorer in World Cup history was Roger Milla, who was 42 in 1994 when he scored a goal for Cameroon against Russia. The youngster started his career in Benfica but played almost exclusively for their B-team before moving to Monaco where he helped the French club win the league and reach the semi-finals of the Champions League last season.

Andre Silva extended the lead 11 minutes after the halftime break and Danilo Pereira sent the hosts packing for good with a goal 12 minutes before the final whistle. Fun fact: Sweden have met Brazil seven times at the World Cup, failing to winning any of them (D2 L5).

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is not too far away, and on Tuesday the folks over at EA Sports blessed us all with a World Cup-themed downloadable update to "FIFA 18" with all the stadiums, teams, badges, uniforms, players and much more. Argentina would not be in Russia without his goals and leadership.

This is how predictions to win the World Cup 2018 have come about. Mario Gotze would score the winner with a brilliantly taken goal to give Germany a 1-0 victory and their fourth World Cup victory. Step up Tim Cahill, who netted twice in five minutes before an injury-time John Aloisi goal sealed a famous 3-1 win, in what was their first ever victory at the finals.

Romário scored five goals and won the Golden Ball award (best player), and Brazil won the FIFA Fair Play Trophy and was voted the Most Entertaining Team. The Jamaica National Football Team has won the Caribbean Cup six times (1991, 1998, 2005, 2008, 2010 & 2014).

Given Argentina scraped into the World Cup in a qualifying campaign nothing less than shocking for a nation with their talent on paper, Messi and co will be relieved at the draw presented as he tries to finally shake his international silverware hoodoo.

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