Men’s Health Australia - 01.07.2018

Craig

Foster

Robbie

Slater

Mark

Bosnich

Chief Football

Analyst, SBS

FOXSportsfootball

commentator

FOXSportsfootball

commentator

PLAYERS TO WATCH

DARK HORSE TEAM

GAME TO SET YOUR

RECORDER FOR

GOLDEN BOOT

WINNER

SOCCEROOS’

CHANCES

WINNER

Ousmane Dembélé

(France, FC Barcelona).

He’s an incredible talent,

extremely quick,

technically brilliant. A

future Ballan d’Or winner.

Antoine Griezmann

(France, Atlético Madrid).

A fantastic player, scores

goals, left and right foot,

a creator, pretty much

the whole package.

Mateo Kovačić

(Croatia, Real Madrid).

Outstanding every time

I’ve seen him this season.

Could start in the

Champions League final.

England. The style and

quality of young English

players is different from the

past. Plus, in Gareth

Southgate, they’ve finally got

a coach who knows what he’s doing.

Poland. They’re in a good

group and they’re ranked 6th

in the world. Adrian

Mierzejewski, one of the top

players in the A-League doesn’t

even make the squad.

Belgium. Impressive in the

qualifiers. They’ve been

touted as dark horses before

but haven’t really done

anything. But they’ve been

building, these things take time.

Russia v Saudi Arabia

(June 15, 1am)

The opening game signals to us that

we’re back here again so you can’t miss

it. Four years is a very long time for

football fans.

England v Belgium

(June 29, 4am)

Two promising sides. Belgium has a

golden generation of talent and a lot of

their stars play in the EPL.

Portugal v Spain

(June 16, 4am)

Iberian rivals. Spain’s one of the best

sides in the world – they beat Argentina

6-1 in a friendly – and Portugal are

reigning European champions.

Gabriel Jesus

(Brazil, Manchester City)

He’s p l a y in g in a t e am t h a t

could win the tournament.

Equal top in goals in South

American qualification.

Neymar

(Brazil, PSG)

Brazil will go far in

the tournament which

means he’ll need to be

scoring goals.

Antoine Griezmann

(France, Atlético Madrid)

France are a favourite and

he’s a top goal scorer for

Atlético Madrid.

Getting out of the group would be a great

success. The group is not as difficult as

last time, it’s more manageable. But I’m

worried we’re going to go there and be

overly cautious, which I don’t support.

It’s very difficult with Ange leaving.

Van Marwijk is very much a stop-gap

before Graham Arnold takes over. I’d

be surprised if we got out of the group.

I think they can make the round of 16

but the most important thing is that they

think they can. A lot will depend on that

opening game. In 2006 we won that

opening game against Japan and built

momentum from there.

Brazil. They’re back in

unbelievable form. They have

individual talent that’s off

the charts and they’re all

playing well.

Germany. There’s only

been one occasion when

a non-European nation

have won in Europe – Brazil

in 1958.

Brazil. Superb in

qualification. They have

a lot to prove after losing

7-1 in the semi-finals

last time.

Get your head in the

game with picks and

predictions from the

nation’s top pundits

EXPERT PANEL