(Times are EST +05:00)



Group A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt, Saudi Arabia

Group B: Portugal, Spain, Iran, Morocco.

Group C: France, Peru, Denmark, Australia

Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria

Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia

Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea

Group G: Belgium, England, Tunisia, Panama

Group H: Poland, Colombia, Senegal, Japan


Brazil (5-1)





A 1-10 aggregate score in their last 180 minutes of World Cup football, Brazil surprised many by successfully qualifying for Russia. A run of good luck could see them make the final 16.

Star player: Neymar



Germany (5-1)





Germany aim to win the consecutive World Cups for the first time since Brazil in 1958/1962.

Star player: Mario Gotze



France (6-1)





Annoyingly, France are really good. Their MF/FW lines are ****ing scary. Only the LOLFrance factor prevents them opening as favourites.

Star player: Antoine Griezmann



Spain (8-1)





Not at the heights of their 2008-2012 EPO era, Spain still pose a serious threat of reaching the quarter finals before crashing out in hilarious fashion.

Star player: David De Gea



Argentina (9-1)





OTOH Argentina winning would be great for the Ronaldo tears. OTOH, Argentina winning would suck because they're Argentina.

Star player: Lionel Messi



Belgium (12-1)





"Belgium are good?"
"Yes"
"Like, really good?"
"Yes"
"Have they always been good?"
"No"
"So Belgium were ****, and then five years ago fifteen elite Belgian footballers came along at once"
"Yup"
"How did that happen?"
"IDK"

Star player: Kevin De Bruyne



England (18-1)





England will win the World Cup.

Star player: Peter Crouch



Portugal (28-1)





Possibly the most overrated team in the tournament - Portugal will do well to exit the group stages.

Star player: Cristiano Ronaldo



Uruguay (33-1)





Uruguay (popn ~ 3.5 mm) look to win their third World Cup title. A favourable draw gives La Celeste’s aging but still dangerous squad a decent chance at making a run.

Star player: Luis Suárez



Colombia (40-1)





Los Cafeteros hope to wake up the World Cup's most competitive group.

Star player: Radamel Falcao



Croatia (40-1)





Sporters of the best kit in the World Cup, Croatia's excellent midfield and all around strength could see them through to the Quarter Finals.

Star player: Luka Modrić



Russia (40-1)





The lowest ranked team, Russia qualified after winning hosting rights in an extremely fair, transparent and non corrupt manner.

Star player: Vladimir Putin



Poland (66-1)





Poland top seeding is due entirely to their footballing brilliance & completely unrelated to FIFA's "eccentric" ranking system.

Star player: Robert Lewandowski



Denmark (100-1)





The only third seed who markets favour to qualify from their group, Denmark hope to replicate their Euro 1992 success (it's unlikely).

Star player: Christian Eriksen



Switzerland (100-1)





FIFA's joke rankings almost gave a top seed to the Swiss. They're not great, but solid allround and should make the RO16. Picking a star man is tough to do, but any excuse to post this GIF...

Star player: Xherdan Shaqiri



Mexico (125-1)





Mexico will avoid the anguish of losing in the Round of 16 for the sixth successive World Cup by crashing out at the group stage.

Star player: Hirving "El Chucky" Liddell



(Thanks Cruzin)

Sweden (125-1)





Will Zlatan Ibrahimovic come out of international retirement before June? Or will Zlatan Ibrahimovic come out of retirement before April? Who knows!

Star player: Zlatan Ibrahimovic



Senegal (200-1)





Forever beloved of football fans worldwide after hilariously defeating former colonial masters France in 2002, 2018 marks the second appearance of The Lions of Teranga on the grand stage.

Star player: Sadio Mané



Serbia (200-1)





The only UEFA team in the fourth seeding pot, Serbia hope that replicating 2010's 1-0 victory over Germany when they play Brazil will get them out of the group stage of the World Cup for the first time.

Star player: Nemanja Matic



Iceland (250-1)





Everyone's second team - Iceland has more volcanoes that professional footballers (really). Most famous for getting extremely lucky in the final 16 of Euro 2016 - Iceland are actually pretty good!

Star player: Gylfi Sigurðsson



Nigeria (250-1)





One of only two sub-saharan African nations to qualify, Nigeria's strong attack and weak defence could make for some fun games.

Victor Moses



Peru (250-1)





Better-than-the-sum-of-their-parts, or lucky? Peru's qualified for their first World Cup in 36 years despite a dearth of star names.

Star player: Paolo Guerrero



Egypt (300-1)





Egypt are seven times African Cup of Nations champions, yet they’ve never won a match in the World Cup finals. 2018 is their time qualifying for the big show.

Star player: Mohamed Salah Ghaly



Japan (300-1)





The Samurai Blue's make their sixth successive World Cup appearance. Also, their sixth World Cup appearance.

Star player: Shinji Kagawa



Costa Rica (500-1)





The surprise of 2014 - Costa Rica topped a group featuring England, Italy & Uruguay. Likely to find going tougher in less favourable atmospheric conditions Los Ticos are just grateful to USA's comedy troupe/football team for making qualification so easy.

Star player: Keylor Navas



Morocco (500-1)





Noone is quite sure how - but a group of Frenchmen & Dutchmen didn't fancy trying to qualify from UEFA (smart move by the Dutch!) convinced FIFA to let them have a go at qualifying from Africa. The plan worked and then some - The Lions of the Atlas qualified unbeaten, without conceding a goal!.

Star player: Medhi Benatia



Australia (750-1)





Most people wouldn't expect Australia to be good at "soccer". They'd be right. This is not a vintage version of the Socceroos. It feels odd calling Aaron Mooy a star, so:

Star player: Tim Cahill



Iran (750-1)





Team Melli put up a credible performance in Brazil 2014 - only losing 1-0 to Argentina due to a 91st minute Lionel Messi goal. No player in Group B is remotely as good as Lionel Messi - so Team Melli will hope to spring an upset and qualify for the last sixteen.

Star player: Reza "Gucci" Ghoochannejhad



South Korea (750-1)





Provided they make it to the World Cup without incinerating in a nuclear fireball, South Korea have one of the better chances to make the final six out of the fourth seed teams. They're in a competitive group.

Star player: Son Heung-Min



Tunisia (750-1)





The Eagles of Carthage can count themselves unlucky. Twenty years after being drawn in the same group as the best team at the 1998 World Cup (England), they find themselves in the same group as the best team at the 2018 World Cup (England).

Star player: Wahbi Khazri



Panama (2000-1)





Lacking star power, La Marea Roja qualified thanks to the management skills of Bruce Arena.

Star player: Blas Perez



Saudi Arabia (2000-1)





Qualifying for the first time in 12 years - Saudi Arabia’s last ten matches in the World Cup consist of zero wins, two draws, eight defeats with five goals scored and twenty nine conceded. Blessed with the weakest group in World Cup history, they’ll still do well to qualify for the RO16.

Star player: Usama Hawsawi

In.

How is Costa Rica's star player not Paulo Wanchope

Why do we need a billion WC discussion threads

Mexico 3 Iceland 0

Truly a bad look that a country this bad and of 400,000 population could qualify to a World Cup. UEFA GOAT tho!!!

Uhh why is England an option in the poll?

DEUTSCHLAND!!!!

LÖL!

Ban OP!

We definitely need a master general discussion thread.

The last two Cups we had group threads but with the decline in forum traffic and the fact that it’s basically one group per day, we might not need them this time.

Nice of Sugar Nut to bump all the group threads

all these threads and none of them cater for posters whose countries were unable to qualify for this competition

where will these people discuss the world cup

Don't worry, mate. After the group stage is over, I'll make a thread for the English to discuss the KO rounds.

What an embarrassment that a country can qualify for the WC when they can't even beat Mexico.

Nah I'm fine with group threads and a general one. It's just that I thought we already had a pre-tournament thread

Conmebol 6 x 0 LOLUEFA

Brazil 3 x 0 Russia
Peru 2 x 0 Croatia
Argentina 2 x 0 Italy
Colombia 3 x 2 France
Uruguay 2 x 0 Czech Republic
Chile 2 x 1 Sweden

not that i particularly want to dwell much on german victories but man how are u even still a football fan after what happened

Aren’t you English and a still football fan?

Five cup wins likely makes up for a semifinal loss without their best player and with the WOAT coach to the eventual champion (and clear best team).

this might not be the place to discuss it, but we need proper names in those groups threads, the funny names are cute and all, but I don't want to be googling group teams before I decide where to post

no they got beat 7-1 at a home tournament

that should've been the end of it. close the shop. last person to leave please turn out the lights

LÖL

?

when we had a world cup at home we won the competition (like you're supposed to) rather than getting beaten 7--1

Iceland tho