iSporter Chirag Mansukhani shares his opinion on the toughest group in this eventful FIFA World Cup 2010. Read on!
The World Cup so far has seen many a surprise with big teams suffering surprise losses to the minnows of the Cup. However, in my opinion there is still some scope for a minnow team to pull the rabbit out of the bag and deliver to us the surprise of the tournament.
For starters France is all but dead and buried while England have a must win game coming up with Slovenia who are heading their group at the moment.
Normally, a match against Slovenia would not be considered a biggie for the three lions but with their poor form, lack of creativity and inability to score goals I wouldn’t be surprised if England struggle against Slovenia.
The Serbs sent the Germans a shock defeat, while the Spanish Armada were all at sea against the Swiss guard. The Ivory Coast and Portugal were even stevens.
Now that I’ve mentioned Portugal and the Ivory Coast let us now come to what I think is by far the toughest group. While a few groups have become interesting due to the surprise losses that the giants of the game have suffered the real toughest group would have to be that of Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea and the mighty Brazil.
Other than North Korea who are not favoured to make it past the group stages, picking two teams out of the other three would be anyone’s guess. To make things more interesting Portugal and the Ivory Coast have already played their match which ended in them sharing points.
The Brazilian giants who many favour to win the Cup this time are not my favourites and I would not be surprised if they were to have some problems in getting through to the next round.
However, with the likes of Kaka and Robinho in the team it would take a brave man to bet against them for at least making it through the group stages. The Ivory Coast have the mighty Drogba along with Toure and seem to be a force to reckon with while Portugal have Ronaldo and Simao to mention a few stars.
Brazil have already won their opener against North Korea and Ivory Coast which would take the pressure of them a little bit as they have bagged 6 points and are now guaranteed to go through to the next round.
While I said that North Korea are least likely to qualify from this group one must not discount their potential. The Brazilians could not dismantle them and the North Korea defence stood their ground in what was a 2-1 defeat. Some may have expected the Brazilian team to whitewash them though that did not happen.
Personally, I would like to see Brazil and Portugal both go through but Portugal seem to be struggling at the moment and Carlos Queiroz just hasn’t been able to get it right at the moment.
An interesting group with some scintillating matches to thrill us all and keep us at the edge of our seats. This would be what many would call the group of death and they would certainly not be wrong. It would take a brave heart to predict this group and while I wish that Portugal and Brazil qualify; one does expect the Ivory Coast to spring a surprise or two as they seem to be a strong and cohesive unit.
All we can do now is wait and watch what lies in store for us. It’s time to sit back and watch this mystery unfold. In the words of Shakira “Waka, Waka it’s time for Africa”.
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