Two-time world champions Argentina may be the hot favourites to beat Ivory Coast in their Group C opener but the African Nations Cup finalists coach Henri Michel said they may be feeling the pressure.
The 57-year-old Frenchman said that while logically both Argentina and the Dutch should progress from their ‘Group of Death’ football had a habit of producing illogical results.
Mexico, ranked fourth in the world but without ever having gone beyond a World Cup quarter-finals, are out to live up to their flattering billing by swatting aside Iran on Sunday in their Group D opener.
Some 1.5 billion people worldwide are expected to watch Germany face Costa Rica on television at the opening match of football’s World Cup, German public broadcaster ZDF said.
“Football fans in 200 countries will be able to watch the game in Munich live,” ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz said, referring to Friday’s opener.
Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc will start his country’s opening World Cup match against Ecuador on Friday, according to fellow keeper and teammate Lukasz Fabianski.
Boruc’s main rival for the spot had been Tomasz Kuszczak, but the West Brom player allowed a freak goal to get past him in the friendly against Colombia last week and that is believed to have nudged coach Pawel Janas in Boruc’s direction.
Italy are faced with an injury crisis just five days before their World Cup campaign begins.
Gennaro Gattuso felt a recurrence of a right leg injury in their final training session on home soil and was ruled out of Monday’s opening Group E clash against Ghana.
Dutch midfielder Rafael Van der Vaart says he is hopeful of being fit for his country’s opening World Cup clash against Serbia-Montenegro in Leipzig.
The SV Hamburg player, who hasn’t played for two months because of a recurring left ankle inury, said that his injury had “healed 100 percent” even if “the physical condition is not yet 100 percent”.
Team officials from Asian giants Saudi Arabia have said there was nothing to worry about despite their World Cup squad being ravaged by injury and which has seen nine of them miss training in recent days.
The World Cup was to kick off, when host nation Germany and Costa Rica set the ball rolling on a month-long, 64-match extravaganza.
Six years after it was controversially awarded the right to stage the finals, Germany has 12 gleaming stadiums ready to host three million fans and a gigantic security operation has swung into action.
Mexican fans may have high expectations for their own team at the World Cup in Germany, but they still don’t believe they will beat Brazil.
In a poll conducted among 1,400 Mexicans asking who they thought would win the World Cup, reigning champions Brazil came out on top with 32.2 percent of the vote.
The Church of England said it had proved a hit with football fans seeking divine intervention to help England win the World Cup after putting a prayer for the team on its website.
