Brazil are rightfully heavy favorites in this group and should breeze past the 3 opponents without much issues. The attacking force of Brazil is in full swing already it seems from their early pre tournament friendlies and Neymar is looking fit and fresh. Tite has them playing the beautiful Joga Bonito football we remember from 2002 with the likes of Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Rivaldo in the team. Switzerland are first up for Brazil in the group and well they never seem to convince me they are a good side. They did ok in qualifying but eventually lost out to Portugal in a last game decider and had to settle on a play off vs Northern Ireland in which they looked absolutely terrible in. I think they get soundly beaten by Brazil and then i think that could cause them to collapse vs the other teams. Serbia are another huge enigma with great potential and just never living up to it. They have talent throughout the squad with the likes of Ivanovic and Matic being the leaders who have been there and done it at the top level. Add in the world class talent that is Milinković-Savić and you have the ingredients of being a decent side, but they don't show it. If they can turn up here they could beat Switzerland into second spot, but can they show up? Lastly rounding out the group is Costa Rica who aged a lot after their heroics in Brazil four years ago after they topped the group of death comfortably at the expense of Italy, Uruguay and England. They have looked dreadful in pre tournament warm up games as well, getting beatenly soundly on both occassions. They have another huge task ahead of them in this group with Serbia and Switzerland good solid opposition for them, let alone a full force assault at the hands of Brazil. Predictions 1st - Brazil 2nd - Serbia 3rd - Switzerland 4th - Costa Rica
Squads
Goalkeepers Alisson - Cássio - Ederson Defenders Thiago Silva - Miranda - Pedro Geromel - Filipe Luís - Marcelo - Marquinhos - Danilo - Fagner Midfielders Casemiro - Renato Augusto - Philippe Coutinho - Paulinho - Fernandinho - Fred - Willian Forwards Douglas Costa - Gabriel Jesus - Neymar (captain) - Roberto Firmino - Taison
Goalkeepers Yann Sommer - Yvon Mvogo - Roman Bürki Defenders Stephan Lichtsteiner (captain) - François Moubandje - Nico Elvedi - Manuel Akanji - Michael Lang - Ricardo Rodríguez - Johan Djourou - Fabian Schär Midfielders Remo Freuler - Granit Xhaka - Valon Behrami - Steven Zuber - Blerim Džemaili - Gelson Fernandes - Denis Zakaria - Xherdan Shaqiri Forwards Breel Embolo - Haris Seferović - Mario Gavranović - Josip Drmić
Goalkeepers Keylor Navas - Patrick Pemberton - Leonel Moreira Defenders Johnny Acosta - Giancarlo González - Ian Smith - Óscar Duarte - Bryan Oviedo - Francisco Calvo - Cristian Gamboa - Kendall Waston - Kenner Gutiérrez Midfielders Celso Borges - Christian Bolaños - Daniel Colindres - Bryan Ruiz (captain) - Rodney Wallace - Randall Azofeifa - Yeltsin Tejeda - David Guzmán Forwards Johan Venegas - Joel Campbell - Marco Ureña
Goalkeepers Vladimir Stojković - Predrag Rajković - Marko Dmitrović Defenders Antonio Rukavina - Duško Tošić - Uroš Spajić - Branislav Ivanović - Aleksandar Kolarov (captain) - Miloš Veljković - Milan Rodić - Nikola Milenković Midfielders Luka Milivojević - Andrija Živković - Dušan Tadić - Marko Grujić - Filip Kostić - Sergej Milinković-Savić - Nemanja Matić - Adem Ljajić Forwards Aleksandar Prijović - Aleksandar Mitrović - Nemanja Radonjić - Luka Jović
Fixtures and Results
Sunday, Jun 17 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Sunday, Jun 17 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Friday, Jun 22 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Friday, Jun 22 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Wednesday, Jun 27 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Wednesday, Jun 27 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
CSS: FO-nTTaX Graphics: Sneirac Awesomeness: Panda
(Vote): Serbia & Switzerland (Vote): Brazil & Costa Rica (Vote): Switzerland & Costa Rica (Vote): Brazil & Serbia (Vote): Costa Rica & Serbia (Vote): Brazil & Switerzland
Poll: Who Do You Want To Advance
Brazil & Serbia (4)
31%
Serbia & Switzerland (3)
23%
Brazil & Costa Rica (2)
15%
Switzerland & Costa Rica (2)
15%
Costa Rica & Serbia (1)
8%
Brazil & Switerzland (1)
8%
13 total votes
Your vote: Who Do You Want To Advance
(Vote): Serbia & Switzerland (Vote): Brazil & Costa Rica (Vote): Switzerland & Costa Rica (Vote): Brazil & Serbia (Vote): Costa Rica & Serbia (Vote): Brazil & Switerzland