Argentina

The World Cup is fast approaching and that can only mean one thing, it's time to start scribbling in your wall charts (in pencil), predicting who will make ...

As was the case in the Euro 2020 final, Gareth Southgate's side fritter away an early advantage with conservative play and find themselves undone in the second half by Kai Havertz, one of five Germans who score their penalties as the Three Lions fall just short again. The tournament bursts into life with one of the great World Cup matches in Al Rayyan, Pedri delivering the performance of a lifetime as Spain stun the favorites in a match riven through with quality. Most underwhelming of all are Portugal, sent home early on by Neymar and company as Brazil shape up to be the team to beat in Qatar. Denmark hold Argentina at bay until the 112th minute when Lautaro Martinez delivers an exceptional winners while there are grumbles of frustration across England at the heavy weather they made of their clash with Senegal, won by Harry Kane from the penalty spot. Ultimately it will be Morocco who are the chief beneficiaries of that result, their point against Croatia and a convincing win over Canada earning the Atlas Lions second place behind an impressive Croatian side. Spain start the tournament with one of those performances they contrive to inflict on themselves every once in a while, their forwards seemingly unable to hit a barn door with a banjo as Keylor Navas denies them in Doha. Kasper Hjulmand's side look better in that game and indeed across the course of the opening three but are undone by Kylian Mbappe's late strike, giving them a mouth-watering round of 16 tie with Argentina. They breeze their way to the last 16 as they usually do whilst Poland and Mexico duke it out for second place in Doha, Robert Lewandowski's late goal firing The Eagles to victory. England might have struggled in 2022 but they are simply a much better team than anyone else in their group and should show as much over the games, including a thumping of USA as they finally cut loose at a major tournament. Several months ago the outlook for Senegal was altogether more bullish but several of their most important players, most notably Chelsea duo Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly, have struggled to hit the heights of last season in the new campaign. 1 Here's our second attempt at predicting how things will shake up in Qatar (