Jose Mourinho Gives His Expert Picks For Group Stage Winners And Runners

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. Best World Cup moment: After a point-less showing in the 1998 groups, Japan co-hosted the 2002 tournament alongside South Korea, securing a point against Belgium before beating Russia and Tunisia to top Group H. A bleach-blonde Junichi Inamoto firing Japan ahead against Belgium sparked wild celebrations.

The core of the squad, which travelled to Swansea to take part in the Over 65 Walking Football World Cup finals, was made up of five Ayr United Football Academy players, supplemented by two Heart of Midlothian stars and one Anglo from Birmingham. Despite an unbeaten record in World Cup qualifiers that stretches back eight years and 38 games, all is not rosy in England's garden.

A World Cup 2018 winner prediction must account for a number of factors and ultimately, it is far more difficult to judge the ability of international teams in comparison to clubs. Those immortal words were uttered as Geoff Hurst smashed in his hat-trick goal in the final minute of extra time.

Player you've never heard of: Hakim Ziyech - The Ajax midfielder has scored seven goals in 13 appearances since making his international debut in 2015. This was the first time that the reigning European champions won the World Cup, a feat matched in 2010 by Spain.

A regular at recent tournaments, the Ivorians missed out after finishing runners up to a Morocco team that didn't concede a goal in all six third-round qualifiers. Russia will be their fifth finals appearance, with a quarterfinal in 2014 their best showing. He has five goals in nine games for Rennes so far this time around, though.

The World Cup is not just a 32-team soccer extravaganza (48 teams starting in 2026), which takes place over the course of roughly four weeks every four years. Uruguay did it without conceding a goal while Belgium was the top scorer in the group stage with nine goals, one ahead of hosts Russia.

WORLD CUP fixtures - the draw for the 2018 World Cup finals takes place on Friday. They have games against England and the Czech Republic to get them ready for Russia. Croatia went undefeated in Group D, including a convincing 3-0 hammering of Argentina, then beat both Spain and Russia in matches that lasted 2 hours each and both went to penalty kicks.

Like Mikel, Rohr has steadied the ship for Nigeria, which has changed coaches eight times since the last World Cup in Brazil. The Oceania region uses the tournament at the South Pacific Games to determine which countries will compete for its single slot in the World Cup.

Fun fact: Leicester striker Shinji Okazaki has scored one goal in each of the last two World Cups (v Denmark in 2010, v Colombia in 2014). The Pharaohs needed victory in Alexandria and an injury-time penalty by Mo Salah was effectively the last kick of the game, ensuring a 2-1 win and triggering wild scenes of celebration on the field and in the country's capital, Cairo.

Winning the Cup for the third time, meant Brazil took sole ownership of it, per FIFA regulations. Match 8: Easy win for England. Argentina endured an unusually fraught qualifying campaign and only reached the finals by the skin of their teeth. Readers would be interested to note that FIFA World Cup matches didn't include mascots until a lion known as World Cup Willie” became the face of the England 1966 tournament.

Argentina got to the final by scraping results together in 2014, and largely because of Lionel Messi The World Cup was and still is the only trophy missing from his cabinet, and in 2014 he Fretsaw had to beat Germany to get it. Player you've never heard of: Yahya Al-Shehri - The winger, currently on loan at Leganes, scored five goals in World Cup qualifying.