Cuthbert

These things are always hard to call imo. You've got the elite teams - Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Italy & Spain. The current German style of football i.e. pressing, speed, counter attacking is the best atm and they have to be hot favourites, they've got a ridiculous amount of quality and can match anyone. Brazil & Argentina just behind them but they're on their home continent. I don't think Spain will win it. In fact I will be astounded if they do, not because they're bad but because these things go in cycles and they will have been top dogs for 6 years by the time it kicks off. The tika-taka has been exposed a few times now also, & then Italy are very strong too and have done well in recent tournaments. All of these should be hoping to get to the final with the exception of maybe Italy who are the weakest of the 5.

Next tier: The Netherlands, Portugal*, Uruguay & Colombia. Outside bets imo, individual star players but not as strong collectively as those others above. Can't see Colombia getting to the final but with a bit of luck the other three might. *If they qualify.

Next tier: Sweden*, England, France & Belgium. I'd say these are the teams who aren't expecting to win but do have quality and others won't want to draw them. Would be very surprised if any of these got to the semis or the final. We should be expecting to get out of our group and then enjoy the rest of the tournament but nothing more. Same applies to the others imo. *If they qualify.

Then you've got decent/average teams like USA & Switzerland with the possibility of teams such as Mexico, Croatia, Ukraine etc in the playoffs. Just getting out of the group would be an achievement for these teams.

I guarantee the winner will be one of those elite 5 teams. Unless England troll our way to victory, scoring just three goals and winning two games in 90 minutes .

Top scorers in qualifying with 11 goals each: Luis Suárez (Uruguay), Robin van Persie (Netherlands) and... Deon McCaulay (Belize) .