World Fantasy: Group A analysis
What you need to know about the Group A of the World Cup
Group A of the World Cup has hosts Russia has its first seeded team. The other teams are Uruguay, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who came from pots 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
The first match of the World Cup will have Russia facing Saudi Arabia. The other game of the group is between Uruguay and Egypt. Since Russia will play Uruguay only in the third round of the group stage, it might be good to idea to bet on the Russians for the first two GameWeeks. Uruguayans might be good picks for all of the group stage, but if they under-perform against Egypt you should reconsider going with them.
Uruguay are favorites in Group A, with Russia and Egypt fighting for the other spot. Saudi Arabia is one of the teams of which less is expected in the World Cup. However, if we look at the FIFA ranking, Russia is surprisingly the second worst ranked team in the World Cup, sitting at the 66th place. Only Saudi Arabia has a worse ranking, even though they’re just one place below Russia, in the 67th. Uruguay is the 17th and Egypt the 46th.
Russia
Being the only team that didn’t participate in the qualifiers, we have to look at friendlies and other games the Russians played. In 2017, Russia played in the Confederations Cup, losing to Mexico and Portugal and winning against New Zealand. In the friendlies, they won only two — against Korea and Hungary — drawing four and losing two. In 2018, things didn’t get better: the Russians lost all three matches played so far, against France, Brazil and Austria.
Russia’s base XI has three at the back, two full-backs playing the whole wing, and diamond midfield and a target man at the front. Smolov (7.5M), the Krasnodar striker, is the team’s offensive reference, in which they put their hopes for goals. In the midfield there are several interesting options, like Dzagoev (7.0M), Aleksey Miranchuk (5.5) and Erokhin (5.0). The next friendly matches might give us some clues as to who will play. The full-backs should be Smolnikov (6.0) and Zhirkov (5.5).
As hosts, it’s expected that Russians will have extra motivation. With the supporters on their side, Russia will want to perform well and advance beyond the group stage.
Uruguay
Uruguay qualified for the World Cup with a second place at CONMEBOL’s qualifiers, behind Brazil. The PSG striker Edinson Cavani emerged as the top scorer in the South-American qualifiers, netting 10 goals. The Celeste ended with 31 points (3 more than Argentina and 10 below Brazil), thanks to 9 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses. In the two friendlies played in 2018, the Uruguayans won against Czech Republic and Wales.
The stars of this team, the two strikers Cavani (10.0M) and Luiz Suárez (10.0), are one of the most feared pairs in the tournament. Matías Vecino (5.5) and Rodrigo Bentancur (5.5) are two talented midfielders who will organize the midfield play. The two centre-backs, Diego Godín (6.5) and José Giménez (6.0), form a solid defensive pair, with the amazing advantage of being team-mates at Atlético de Madrid.
As the favourites in this group, Uruguay starts it’s participation playing against Egypt. With Salah still recovering from the injury suffered in the Champions League final, the South-American side becomes even more favourite. If they beat Egypt, they have a foot in the Round-of-16, because in GameWeek 2 they Saudi Arabia, where no one thinks Uruguay won’t win.
Egypt
The pharaohs qualified for the World Cup after winning Group E of the African qualifiers, staying ahead of Uganda, Ghana and Congo. With 4 wins, a draw and a loss (against second place Uganda), the Egyptians finished with 13 points, 4 ahead of Uganda. However, in 6 games they scored only 8 goals (5 of them by Salah). After that, they played three friendlies, with modest outcomes. They were beaten by Portugal and Greece and couldn’t go beyond a draw with Kuwait.
As we all know, Egypt’s main figure is Mohamed Salah (9.5M). The Liverpool star suffered an injury in the Champions League final and will probably be unavailable for the first game in the World Cup. This can be a huge setback for the Africans: if Liverpool felt orphaned without his star, in Egypt the impact might be bigger. Elneny (5.5), the Arsenal midfielder, is the second most recognizable player.
Despite being above Russia in FIFA’s ranking, Egypt seems less a contender to the second place than the hosts. The first game is against the strongest opponent and it will be hard for Egypt to come out with a positive result. If Salah is fit, at least for the second GameWeek, the Egyptians may have a word to say.
Saudi Arabia
The Saudis reached the World Cup after being second in the Asian qualifiers’ Group B. With 19 points, Saudi Arabia were just 1 point behind Japan and were even with third place Australia. Of the 17 goals scored by the Saudis, 15 were by Mohammed Al Sahlawi! The Arab squad played a lot of friendlies this year, and the results aren’t bad. They lost against Iraq, Belgium and Italy, draw with Ukraine and beat Moldova, Algeria and Greece.
There are no stars in the Saudi Arabia squad. Al Salahwi (5.5M) is the target man, as we can see by the percentage of goals he scored in the qualifiers. If the Saudis score in the World Cup, he’ll prabably be involved. Taiseer Al Jassam (6.0M) is the main creative force in the midfield. As for defenders, you should avoid them at all costs.
As we said earlier, Saudi Arabia has the worse FIFA ranking of all the 32 teams present in Russia. The group isn’t the toughest, they avoided the main candidates, but still no one would be surprised if they finished without points.
