For me It's Brazil their squad is looking its strongest then it has been in the last decade, with two world-class goalies, and a top-class attack. This World Cup is looking like their best chance

I always go: Best Midfield --> Best Defense --> Best Attack.

If you recall international tournaments throughout the years, the attackers rarely make a difference, particularly in the later rounds where the 1-0 corner kick is commonplace final score. Mbappe was the exception to the rule for the most part. Teams with rock solid spines are the ones that win.

France's midfield is really nice. The defense is more eh. Attackers should be good.

Brazil's midfield I worry about progression. Casemiro and Fabinho are great, but they're not huge advancers of play and I'm not sure the squad has that at all. Not convinced about their defense either, and having 2 world-class goalies is irreverent because you can only play one. For once they finally have a nine though, so who knows, perhaps they'll score consistently.

England are so good on paper it's ridiculous. Their midfield is actually insane with everything you could ever want and depth that is better than most teams. Kane and Sterling have been great for club and country, and I assume Abraham will be coming which means not all is lost if Kane goes down. The defense is a bit more concerning, but usually performs well for the national team. Think Maguire, Pickford, Shaw, etc - all had bad club seasons - all have been rock-solid for England. Potential to whiff there.

Belgium's time has come and gone. All their best players either got worse, got prohibitively older, or are out of form. Courtois and De Bruyne are the major exceptions to that. Defensively they look BAD. Lukaku always seems to come through for the national team, but he and Hazard have been really poor recently. Tielemans is what could make or break this side. I certainly don't consider them favorites.

Croatia I can speak less about, as many of their players play in leagues outside what I consume. I hate the age balance though. A bunch of young 20 year olds and a bunch of ancients. Teams with that makeup historically don't perform well and are considered to be in transition, and I think that fits for Croatia. Generally speaking, players are in their prime at about 27-32. Croatia nearly entirely lacks that age group represented in their squad.

All things considered, I'd still have France as the favorites, like they have been for me in the last couple major tournaments. England wouldn't be far behind. Brazil's squad is so unbalanced I'm not sure how they could break down teams outside of individual brilliance, but if anyone can manifest individual brilliance, it's Brazil. Belgium I'd have a hard time seeing getting anywhere near a semi-final. Their defense is just bad and the attackers have sucked. Croatia I wouldn't be surprised to see not make it out of the group. And as for Canada, a single victory would be a success.

I am saying Brazil because they won't rely solely on Neymar this time around. This team is nasty in most positions and most players are all playing at a high level right now.

The hard part is narrowing the squad to 23. If they play a 4-2-3-1 I can see this line-up

Alisson
Sandro-Silva-Marquinhos-Danilo
Casemiro-Fabinho
Vini-Neymar-Raphinha
Jesus(or Firmino)

You still have players like Richarlison, Martinelli, Cunha, Paqueta, Coutinho, Antony, Rodrygo, Luiz, Fred, Guimaraes, Arthur, Arana, Telles, Gabriel, Bremer, Militao, Felipe, Alves, Emerson, Ederson, and Weverton

England, on paper, is stacked and I agree with Sun on their account. Can they play together this time and get to the final?
France is so nasty as well and I would peg it as a finalist.
I wish Belgium would have shown better the last few Cups but they are a lot longer in the teeth now, not sure they will have enough.
You can't sleep on Portugal or Argentina.

Glorious Canadian apreciation, thank you. Well obviously it would take a miracle to see us win it all and it would be quite tricky to get out of group phase though a lot more realist already. Still voted Canada cause come on, Yusuf went out of his way to add them.

Belgium/Croatia, I'm gonna explain my thought on both of them at once since they are for me in similar situation. Belgium and Croatia for me is at the end of what been a golden era, they still got a few sparkle here and there in Courtois, De Bruyne and Modric but their overall quality has dropped for me. A lot of the Croatian veteran from WC 2018 are gone and weren't replaced all that well for me and Belgium defense like Sun said went from being excellent back in 2018 to being... well much weaker sadly. Can't see them going all the way this year unless they manage big upset or their star find back their form and lead them to victory.

England has a very strong team, consistency will be the key here cause some player who had a great euro had a really shitty season, hopefully, that won't carry to the World Cup but I'm worried a bit.

France big problem imho here is the defense, Deschamp is very likely to put faith in player he used in the past but most of them are not in great form. Would be interesting to see Konate and Kounde playing together over Kimpembe and Varane but I kinda doubt Deschamp would be daring enough to try it.

Brazil got lot more option upfront than in the recent past but kinda less quality option in the midfield. Like Sun said, they got lot of stuff going for them in term of defending midfielder but very little creativity, playing Neymar in the midfield might be key here. In defence, centerbacks aren't too bad but their wingback are getting old or not in good form.

Spain deserve a mention for me as they been really interesting in last Euro, depending on their opponent, they could go far. Just worry they got no one to finish the many occassion they can create.

Portugal and Argentina are pretty interesting, their teams are kinda old and it might be their last change to win a WC for some of their players, so I expect them to be extra motivated. Portugal team been playing together for a long, long time, so they got that going for them but their playstyle haven't evolve much since euro 2016 and thats not good. Meanwhile, Argentina created something special by winning last Copa, let see if they can take it farther.

Germany, okay, so arguably, their team is weaker than in the past but I expect great stuff from Flick, this is the guy who took over Bayern mid-season and turned them into european champion immediatly. If anyone can bring out the best from this Germany side, I believe its him.

France and Brazil are favorites. People keep forgetting Netherlands. They will be a force- have midfield, defense, and attack. Depends on which LVG manages the squad though. The others not that strong this year.

I've been arguing about this with my friends quite a bit. I honestly think CONMEBOL teams are a bit overrated. I don't think Brazil or Argentina can take it, not even a chance. Quote this if you want but either one will barely make it to the semi-finals.

I think England is as strong as ever, their last 3-4 years of football have been some of their best in recent memory but.... you just never know with them. They're a team waiting to choke at some point.

I have a very strong hunch about Germany, not sure why. I just feel like they have everything it takes to win it all. Squad quality, depth, coaching, youth+older players, experience.

Then on the other side, teams like Belgium and Spain are still far away from being competitive again and struggling to make a proper generational transition while still displaying good enough football.

France should be a favorite in anyone's books. They are just as strong as 4 years ago, don't see them not being a top team. Would be very very surprised if they don't make it top 4.

Watch out for Netherlands and Portugal, very sneaky/under-the-radar teams that with a bit of luck can go really far.

It would be fun to make an official prediction forum thread with different prompts before the WC and try to post our brackets later..

@ashwin Yo, I completely forgot about Netherland, for sure they are a tough team as well, some very good player in all position, its too bad that some of their key players got complicated situation at their club. Wijnaldum and Depay being the one who come to mind.

I honestly think CONMEBOL teams are a bit overrated. I don't think Brazil or Argentina can take it, not even a chance.

That seem a bit harsh though I think I get where your are coming from with this. However, I do believe they have enough individual quality to go all way but obviously, we all know thats not enough. They did walk over all the other team in the qualification stage though and I believe we should not take that for granted. All in all, for me, they aren't favorite in my opinion but could still go far if things goes in their way.

An X factor is game time temps. Brazil tends to play well in warm climate cups. South Korea has pretty warm summers for the 2002 win. USA in 94, Mexico in 70, Chile in 62, and the odd one out is Sweden in 58.

Argentina and Uruguay as well for that matter.

As for being overrated, I can see that point given Brazil had only been playing against SA teams with covid ruling the lands. We will see in about 170 days, and I can't wait!

@DarthFooty Thats actually a very good point, wonder if the temp will play a role, for all we know, we might see very different results than what we seen in Russia in 2018. We can only wait and see for now.

Surprised there was no mention of the Netherlands here, OP. Don't forget that before LVG joined us, he brought the Oranje to third-place in 2010, and frankly popularised that 3-5-2 formation, or at least that was when I first thought it was effective (with the right players). I voted other, a.k.a Netherlands.

I was stunned at how well Argentina played and Netherlands recently.

Need to look deeper into it, but I think favourites are Argentina, Holland, England and maybe Spain.

Underdogs for Portugal, Croatia and Germany.

As for France, well, I just hope we won't fall into the winners trap like Spain and Germany before us

I'd love some underdog story, but hope Qatar gets outs as soon as possible, haha.

@expertfootball11 France not looking good right now in the nation league, feel like they kinda lost themselve defensively since WC 2018. Honestly, difference between making it to the knockout phase and being out in group phase is some time very small. Good luck to France, feel they might need it.

This world cup is propably gonna be last chance for Messi and Ronaldo to win it with their country. Expect good thing from both of them.

@quikzyyy You and me both mate, I don't have nothing against their football team but considering how sketchy the whole thing around this world cup been to say the least, don't think the country deserve anything out of that world cup in term of football success. I'm also really worried about the refereeing, if there any country that could put pressure on the ref to make thing goes their way, its country like Quatar. Hopefully, I'm wrong, I would hate for the games results to be influenced by the host country.

England

Not sure the current Nations tournament is a great indication of a team performing in the upcoming World Cup, but I am sure England fans are sure hoping it's not. haha

I will say though that the build-up to this WC is better for teams as they have a bit more meaningful matches in the lead-up than just a few "friendlies" against usually much weaker teams.

@Pelle @Darthfooty Pretty crazy how lots of folk dislike Southgate style of play and believe he doesn't fully use the potential of his team, but if we're honest, his England side alway progress farther in important tournament. I know some will say they had relatively easy draw or fortunate situation and that they alway ended up collapsing against team their own size.

Personally, I'm still gonna give Southgate the benefit of the doubt, think he certainly deserve some respect for what he pulled off in WC 2018 and Euro 2020, bringing an usualy underperforming England side in top 4 and top 2 in major tournaments is quite an accomplishment for me.

No coach will make all the English fans happy until they win the World Cup. Southgate is just fine, and I think he is looking at testing some strategies and players in the lead-up matches, something most good coaches are doing.

What England has against it is its player base is all from the top leagues in the world, yet they never get far enough for everyone's insane standards. To make a semi-final in a major tournament is a great accomplishment when you factor in the scale of these events. Then to make a final in another large tournament, well, that is a success. Sure winning is the top of that cake and as competitors, we all want to win.

It's not like the teams that are perennial powerhouses, yet didn't qualify at all!

This year's World Cup for England won't be a walk in the park. The group is not easy, despite what many think. Not that Fifa rankings are worth anything, but with those rankings, this is the Group of Death. If England takes these teams lightly, they could get bounced in the first round, and then......... we will see a riot from the English fans. haha

England #5
USA #15
Wales #18
Iran #21

These games means a lot for the ranking lists so I think the teams take it quite seriously. The winners (and runner ups) have been and are reigning european or world champions.
It’s not like the relatively meaningless friendlies, so I think these games are a good indication of where teams are and what could be expected of them in the next WC.

The Nations League is interesting in that it makes teams a semi-known quantity. In prior World Cups, everything was done behind closed doors or with a few meaningless friendlies, whereas now this happens out in the open. There are two possible outcomes from this: a) a team has a notable weakness that other teams become aware of and exploit, or b) a team has a notable weakness that they're able to realize and fix before playing in the tournament.

That second one is crucially different. In recent years, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, etc - all had huge problems during the actual tournament that no one (including themselves) saw coming. An opportunity to diagnose and perhaps find an answer is massive.

These games means a lot for the ranking lists so I think the teams take it quite seriously.

Only need to read De Bruyne previous statement on Nation League to know not all of them take it seriously.

@Sunflash Good point, the last two games before the world cup will make for good final practice for the manager after they'd analysed the results from the last four games played.

I especially hope to see England and France learning from those results and performing better in the WC. Would be terrible for France to be another victim of the Champion curse. Someone gonna need to break it at one point. :U

Welp, I'm back here after a while and I wondered if any of you guys changed your opinion regarding certain team.

I know for sure I'm not too convinced by France and England.

France got it especially hard with a bunch of major injury recently at key post. Doubt player like Varane and Pogba will be a their best even if they're back. Kante will be missing for sure which sadden me a lot as he's my favorite player.

Ronaldo is not in great form for Portugal, happy he's getting more consistent game time at United now cause he will need some warming up imho if he hope to perform his best in the WC.

Argentina has managed to kept a really good team spirit, hope Messi stay healthy for the WC and help his NT.

Pretty crazy to think its propably Messi and Ronaldo last WC and for sure one of them is not gonna win it... Maybe none of them will. That would kinda be crazy.