Teams : Portugal,Spain,Morocco,Iran
Portugal and Spain start out as favorites while both Morocco and Iran are capable of upsets.You can’t discount the fact that most of the Moroccan players are at first division european clubs and Iran is currently ranked at 36.
Portugal
Portugal’s chances are based on their captain Christiano Ronaldo’s form and he responds well to such kind of pressure.Portugal's best has been the semi-finals in 1966 when Eusebio was the top scorer and in 2006 when Luis Figo captained them.Their other relevant striker is Milan's Andre Silva while Queresma would be an interesting watch.Bernardo Silva is their midfield star and Pepe takes care of defence.Manuel Fernandez is the player with Russian exposure.Portugal didn’t have much threats in their qualifiers,except for Switzerland and against whom they lost the away match and won the home match.They conceded only 4 goals in the qualifiers. This is Portugal's seventh attempt at the World Cup.Their coach Fernando Santos would try to add another feather to his cap after the Euro 2016 truimph.
Spain
Spanish team is basically the cream of La liga + DeGea & a few others.They had to make quite a few notable omissions like Alonso,Pedro,Morata,Fabregas& Bellerin to announce their World cup squad.Their defence is led by their captain Sergio Ramos and includes Gerard Pique,Jordi Alba,Dani Carvajal and Azpilicuetta.Their defensive midfield options are FC Barcelona's Iniesta and Busquets while Real Madrid players Isco and Asensio are among their attacking midfield options.They have playmakers in David Silva and Thiago Alacantra.Their star upfront is Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa and Celta de Vigo's Aspas gets the nod.They got the better of Italy in the qualifiers to top their group.This is the 15th campaign of the 2010 winners.Following Lopetegui's sacking, Spain's sporting director Fernando Hierro was appointed as their coach.
Morocco
Morocco are back to the world cup after 20 years.Out of their previous four campaigns,their best was the round of 16 in 1986.A notable omission from the squad is Southampton's Sofiane Boufal who is out of form but scored the goal of the season in premier league 2017-18. Mehdi Benatia,their centre back captain who plays for Juventus & had got 2 goals in Copa Italia final against Milan could be a player to be watched out for.Hakimi,the young full-back on Real Madrid's roll gets an opportunity to prove himself.Ziyech who plays for Ajax in Eredivise have been among goals when in national colors with a strike rate of a goal per two games.Their legendary player Mustapha Hadji,who had played in 1994 World Cup is their assistant coach while the French man Herve Renard who had successfully took two different teams to the Africa Cup of Nations title is their head coach.
Iran
This is the fifth time Iran has qualified for the world cup and also successively for the second time.They have not been very successful in their world cup campaigns and has only 1 win as back as in 1998.They dominated their world cup qualifying group and had beat South korea in 1 game.They follow a counter attack strategy.Their notable players in the forward line are Sardar Asmoun,Mehdi Taremi & Reza Ghoochannejhad.Asmoun plays in Russian domestic league while Taremi was the Iranian footballer of the year successively in 2016 and 2017.Ghoochannejhad started out in dutch junior national sides and then chose the Iranian senior side.He had also scored at the last world cup.They are coached by former Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz.
Fifa Ranks @ June 07,2018
Portugal : 4
Portugal : 4
Spain : 10
Iran : 37
Morocco : 41
Iran : 37
Morocco : 41