England have drawn Sven Goran Eriksson's home team Sweden again. Also England must play the dangerous South American side Paraguay and the Caribbean's Trinidad and Tobago.
This is not a group of death, but it is not an easy world cup final draw by any means.
I think England will win Group B, but football is a funny old game I gather.
GROUP A
Germany GER
Costa Rica CRC
Poland POL
Ecuador ECU
GROUP B
England ENG
Paraguay PAR
Trinidad and Tobago TRI
Sweden SWE
GROUP C
Argentina ARG
Ivory Coast CIV
Serbia & Montenegro SCG
Netherlands NED
GROUP D
Mexico MEX
Iran IRN
Angola ANG
Portugal POR
GROUP E
Italy ITA
Ghana GHA
United States USA
Czech Rep. CZE
GROUP F
Brazil BRA
Croatia CRO
Australia AUS
Japan JPN
GROUP G
France FRA
Switzerland SUI
South Korea KOR
Togo TOG
GROUP H
Spain ESP
Ukraine UKR
Tunisia TUN
Saudi Arabia KSA
The group winners and the runner up teams go through to the knockout rounds, consisting of 16 nations.
World Cup Knockout Stages
♠ Winners of Group A plays Runner-up of Group B in Munich on Saturday June 2
♠ Winners of Group B plays Runner-up of Group A in Stuttgart on Sunday June 25
♠ Winners of Group C plays Runner-up of Group D in Leipzig on Saturday June 24
♠ Winners of Group D plays Runner-up of Group C in Nuremberg on Sunday June 25
♠ Winners of Group E plays Runner-up of Group F in Kaiserslautern on Monday June 26
♠ Winners of Group F plays Runner-up of Group E in Dortmund on Tuesday June 27
♠ Winners of Group G plays Runner-up of Group H in Cologne on Monday June 26
♠ Winners of Group H plays Runner-up of Group G in Hanover on Tuesday June 27
(group winners and runners up qualify for the knockout round of 16 teams)
England Blog Comment - Soccer fans across the world will hope their teams can do well. Brazil are the 3/1 clear favourites to win the World Cup, but don't forget, the South Americans do not do well in the finals when the competition is held in Europe.
Come on England!
World Cup2005/2006 World Cup OfficialThe Fifa Website
Posted at 9:20 PM, Friday, December 09, 2005
3 Comments
I prefer our group to Argentina's any day. Having said that, I think we perform better as underdogs than as potential winners, so although the group may look easy on paper, I can see us playing like we played in the qualifiers.
My picks
Group A
Germany Poland
Group B
England Sweden
Group C
Argentina Netherlands
Group D
Mexico Portugal
Group E
Italy Czech Republic
Group F
Brazil Croatia
Group G
France Togo
Group H
Spain Ukraine
OtherThingsNow
The trick is sql, to work out who will be the big name casualty who will go out in the group stages. There is always atleast one countries national side that surprisingly flops, if not more.