Football’s greatest event starts in little over a weeks time now and in this article we look at the groups E and F.
France nearly failed to reach Brazil, however have been drawn into a favourable Group E, alongside Switzerland, Ecuador and Honduras.
In Group F, Argentina are the favourties to progress and will battle it out with Bosnia, Iran and the African Nations champions Nigeria.
Group E
Didier Deschamps has decided to leave the Manchester City pair of Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy out his World Cup squad.
Even without the Premier League winning duo, France’s squad is full of excellent players, with the young talent given a chance by Deschamps.
Switzerland are the seeded team in Group E and have a highly talented young squad of their own, with the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri and Ricardo Rodriguez performing well in the Bundesliga.
Ecuador performed well in their last World Cup campaign of 2006 and will be looking to replicate that form by reaching the last 16.
Honduras stifled the Swiss in the 2010, holding them to a 0-0 draw, however they will have done well to claim a point this time around.
It’s hard to look past the French topping the group, provided there are no in house fracas like 2010, which saw them exit embarrassingly at the group stage.
The match between Switzerland and Ecuador is likely to go a long way to determining the side that finishes second to the French.
Group F
Argentina are expected to cruise through Group F with three wins from three, given their star studded squad.
A front three of Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain and Lionel Messi is the strongest in the tournament and expect them to blow their Group F opponents away.
Bosnia are making their World Cup debut, having edged Greece (although they qualified via the play-offs) out for top spot.
The European side have a lot of forward talent, however defensively they are expected to struggle.
Nigeria won the 2013 African Cup of Nations and travel to Brazil full of confidence that they can at least match their previous best.
Their match with Bosnia will go along way to determining second place and I expect them to qualify with Argentina.
Iran were defensively superb through out qualifying, conceding just three goals in their final group stage.
They could struggle in Brazil though and if they can avoid finishing bottom it would be a decent return.
Group E Predictions
1) France 2) Switzerland 3) Ecuador 4) Honduras
Group F Predictions
1) Argentina 2) Nigeria 3) Bosnia 4) Iran
Best bet: France, Switzerland, Argentina and Nigeria to qualify 4.98 with Bet 365
To qualify top: France and Argentina 2.18 with Bet 365
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