World Cup preview - Pt 1
Although World Cup fever has been somewhat tainted by the shock discovery that the bidding for the Qatar 2022 edition may not have been entirely above board, the show must go on and so here is my exclusive, highly-informed preview: Group A Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon It ’ s hard to think of this group as anything other than a gentle warm-up for the hosts. The Croats have some useful attacking talents in Luka Modric and Mario Mandzukic, but they’ve never come close to replicating their third place finish of 1998. Us Englanders being hopelessly blinkered, we often view fellow European nations in relation to ourselves, and although they’ve been known to beat us on occasion (thanks for that, Mr MacLaren), Croatia basically sit as one of those B-level European teams who we tend to get drawn with in qualifying fairly regularly, yet rarely do they look like a significant threat to our hopes. Unlucky, lads. Mexico are like clockwork - generally quali...