Group I preview
France: Les Bleus are heading to the World Cup with in my opinion the strongest squad in the entire competition, a front four of Olise-Mbappe-Dembele-Cherki is enough to send shivers down just about every defence in the competition but the question is whether or not they will compliment each other enough to beat the likes of Spain and Argentina? There are players in this squad that if they have a good tournament put themselves in the running for the Balon D’Or like Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise so I wonder if they can put their egos aside and work together to bring the World Cup back to France this summer. They do find themselves in a pretty tricky group with Senegal and Norway so there’s going to be no time to settle into this World Cup for France, are France your favourites for this World Cup? They have to be up there.
Player to watch: Rayan Cherki
Iraq: Iraq are heading to the World Cup for the first time in 40 years and find themselves in arguably the most competitive group in the entire tournament, I don’t think there’s much expectations on this Iraq side considering the group they’re in but they still expect to make the games competitive which I still think could be a struggle considering how strong Norway, Senegal and France are at the moment. They’ll try and keep the games close by defending deep and springing on transition when they get a chance but I can’t see Iraq getting any points in this group, a shame considering how few World Cups they’ve been to.
Player to watch: Mohanad Ali
Norway: Another side that ticks all the boxes of a ‘dark horse’ in the tournament and you can see why with the strength of their squad, they have arguably the best striker in Erling Haaland who will be keen to perform in his first ever major tournament for Norway along with the likes of Martin Odegaard, Antonio Nusa, Oscar Bobb etc who all have the ability to win matches on their own. They absolutely sailed through qualifying smashing Italy 4-1 in their last game in the San Siro so they are bringing huge momentum into the tournament which they’ll need in such a tough group, I really like the look of this Norway side and can see them upsetting some big teams in this World Cup, will that start against France and Senegal in the group stage? I think it might.
Player to watch: Antonio Nusa
Senegal: The Senegalese are heading to this tournament having had the AFCON taken off them in ridiculous fashion months after the final whistle blew in Morocco which still doesn’t make sense to me but I wonder what impact that will have on this Senegal team in this World Cup? They were brilliant in the AFCON back in January and I would expect more of the same in this World Cup from this team, they are still led by Sadio Mane who continues to perform in a Senegal shirt despite being 34 years old alongside the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Iliman Ndiaye, Pape Gueye etc who all had good tournaments back in January. It’s a tough group to call but Senegal have recent experience of going far in tournaments so I would expect more of the same this time around in the USA, they’ll have to navigate a tough group first of all which won’t be easy. Will Senegal be Africa’s best team in this World Cup?
Player to watch: Pape Gueye
Overall prediction for the group:
1.France
2.Norway
3.Senegal
4.Iraq