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Germany are the hot favourites in this group with a fierce home ground advantage and their vocal supporters will be intimidating to say the least for their opposition. Poland could offer up a few surprises, they tested England during qualification, but the real surprise could come from Ecuador. Convincingly beating Paraguay and Uruguay in the South American Zone to qualify, they could overcome their poor away record and provide some interesting upsets. |
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View Group A's standings and team statistics |
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England are strong favourites to take out this group. Their main competition is Sweden, looking to improve on their 2002 World Cup result where they made it through to the final 16. Trinidad and Tobago certainly have the heart necessary to make it to the next stage but will need to overcome Paraguay who have survived the group stage in their last 2 World Cup appearances. |
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View Group B's standings and team statistics |
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Normally Argentina would be automatic favourites but the Netherlands could sour their 2006 World Cup campaign. Ranked 3rd by FIFA and a force in qualification, they are undoubtably the biggest threat to Argentina. The real dark horse of this group is Serbia and Montenegro who have great defence (only conceding 1 goal in 10 matches) and overcame Spain in qualification. Côte d'Ivoire were a shock qualification (edging out Cameroon!) and could mount some solid challenges to the more experienced World Cup campaigners. |
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View Group C's standings and team statistics |
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A solid showing at last year's FIFA Confederations Cup and their 13th World Cup appearance puts Mexico in the box seat to take out this group. Despite being ranked 7th by FIFA, Portugal have traditionally underachieved in previous World Cup appearances (not having proceeded beyond the group stage since 1966) but will be looking to step up for the world stage. Angola will be out to topple their closely associated rivals Portugal (Senegal vs France in 2002 anyone?) and Iran are looking to make their mark in their 3rd World Cup appearance. |
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View Group D's standings and team statistics |
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Italy shares Argentina's pain by being in one of the toughest groups of the tournament. The USA finished ahead of Mexico in qualifying and have never looked better in their 5th consecutive appearance at the World Cup. The Czech Republic is the team, along with the Netherlands, that no one wanted in their group and Ghana are hardly easy beats despite this being their first World Cup appearance. Italy simply cannot afford to lose focus during the early group stage if they are to make a run at the trophy. |
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View Group E's standings and team statistics |
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Brazil are hot favourites to take out the tournament and are definitely the team to beat in Germany. Ronaldinho is the player to watch and the rest of his team mates make up the best attacking team in the entire tournament. The Socceroos finally make another appearance and it will be interesting to see what Guus Hiddink can do with the talent and confidence the Socceroos now possess. Croatia will be looking to make up for their lacklustre performance at the 2002 World Cup and Japan are a team to watch after giving Brazil a heart palpitation in the FIFA Confederations Cup last year where they drew 2-2. |
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View Group F's standings and team statistics |
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France are slim favourites of this group and are looking to make up for their humiliating first round exit in 2002. But little separates them from Korea Republic (semi finalists in 2002) and Switzerland, who were undefeated in their qualification campaign. Togo is the clear underdog and have nothing to lose in their first appearance at the World Cup finals, but are more than capable of providing some major upsets. |
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View Group G's standings and team statistics |
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Spain should take out this group with Ukraine but Saudi Arabia (in their 4th World Cup appearance) and Tunisia (3rd consecutive World Cup appearance) could put up some very strong opposition if they bring their best form to Germany. Ukraine beat Turkey, Greece, and Denmark to make it to the 2006 World Cup and will be looking to take Spain head on. |
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View Group H's standings and team statistics |
