After the draw, held on December 1 in the Moscow Kremlin, 32 football teams were divided into 8 groups. It is noted that all the formed groups consist of worthy and professional teams, however, among the experts, certain favorites and outsiders of the upcoming sports were singled out.
Soon after the draw, Stakers Sportwetten released the forecast for the outcome of the 2018 World Cup, singling out Brazil as an obvious favorite, followed by Argentina and Germany. While the chances of Brazil's victory are estimated at 14. 2%, chances of obvious outsiders of the championship, namely the national teams of Panama, Tunisia and Morocco, are estimated by analysts at 0. 7%, 0. 8%, 0. 5% respectively.
The main favorite of the match Brazil was distributed to the E group together with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia. The Brazilian national team showed an excellent game in qualifying matches in South America and is now seriously set to win in Group E. Brazilians became the first team after Russia, who got the coveted ticket to Mundial, after a crushing victory over Paraguay with a score of 3: 0 28 March 2017. The key match for the five-time champions will be a match against Switzerland, which will be held on June 17 in Rostov-on-Don. The meeting will be decisive for both teams: both in terms of victory in the group, and in terms of the opportunity to avoid a meeting with the current champions of the German national team. Under the guidance of coach Tite, the Brazilian team was able to be in the first place in qualifying matches for two games later.
Another favorite of the Sportwetten version is Argentina, which was in Group D with Croatia, Nigeria, and the smallest country Iceland. It's safe to say that Argentina will make the whole group D sweat on the field. The key match for the blue and white will be a game with Croatia, which will be held June 21 in Nizhny Novgorod. The teams will meet face to face for the first time since the meeting of 1998, which ended with the score 1: 0 in favor of Argentina. Moreover, the intriguing moment of the confrontation will be a meeting at the different ends of the field of two players of the Barcelona club - Lionel Messi and Ivan Rakitic. The match promises to be truly exciting.
Finally, Germany - the current world champion in football - was in the group F, thereby making it clear to the national teams of Mexico, Sweden and South Korea that ahead of them is a fierce game. All teams in the group are familiar with the German national team, but the key match will be the match between Mexico and Germany on June 17, 2018. Germany already played against Mexico in the semifinals of the Confederation Cup in June 2017 and, despite the fact that the final score was 4-1 in favor of the Germans, the Mexicans managed to realize one of the most spectacular goals in the history of football.
Football fans, along with the players, are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2018 World Cup, which will be held from June 14 to July 15 at 11 venues in 8 cities of Russia.