World Cup

Now that the group stage is over, everyone’s focus is beginning to shift toward the action of the Round of 16. But before that begins, let’s take a look at who performed the best for their countries in the group stages. Some put their nation on their backs, and others played key roles for their country without getting on the scoresheet or getting all the plaudits. Without further ado, here’s the group stage World Cup dream team of the 2018 World Cup! As always, a simple 4-4-2 formation is how we are going to form this team.

Jose Mourinho is world-renowned for his managerial prowess, but before the World Cup started, he had a go at predicting which teams would make it out of the group stages.

Truth be told, he threw up a number of surprises. But can we expect anything less than that from the Special One? First, let’s revisit his predictions in this video.

GROUP A: Uruguay (1st), Russia (2nd)

When the groups were announced for the 2018 World Cup, people would have bet the house on Germany to make it into the knockout rounds in a group alongside Mexico, Sweden and South Korea. But if you believe in superstitions, then you would have seen Germany crashing out of the group stages, as the last three European World Cup winners before them had the same fate. 

Instead, Sweden finished at the top of Group F. But, how did a team that didn’t have much expectation from the public achieve what many thought was highly unlikely?