Live on ITV 1. Coverage starts at 12:10 (GMT). Presented by Mark Pougatch. Punditry from Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Karen Carney. Commentary from Sam Matterface and Ally McCoist.
Germany
It’s weird that we’re coming into a World Cup and Germany are relatively unfancied. Russia 2018 was their worst ever World Cup and the first time they’ve gone out in the 1st group stage. I actually like their chances more than most, I think they’ve got a chance of going all the way. From a City perspective I think Gundogan will start but he’s got competition in the midfield with Kimmich, Goretzka, Musiala and maybe Muller dropping in.
They didn’t have the best Nations League campaign, they did better than England though. They lost unexpectedly to Hungary but other than that, they are unbeaten all year, having played some tough matches.
Japan
Japan continue their impressive run of making every World Cup since 1998. They come into this on the back of a decent World Cup showing in 2018, where they were close to knocking Belgium out and making the quarter-final. They are arguably stronger at this World Cup, Mitoma has been playing well for Brighton, Kamada has been impressive for Frankfurt and the rest of the squad mainly plays in the top leagues around Europe.
Japan finished behind Saudi Arabia in qualifying but that’s not looking too bad all of a sudden, they’ve had an inconsistent year but I expect they’ll be competitive in Qatar. It is a tough group though.
Germany
It’s weird that we’re coming into a World Cup and Germany are relatively unfancied. Russia 2018 was their worst ever World Cup and the first time they’ve gone out in the 1st group stage. I actually like their chances more than most, I think they’ve got a chance of going all the way. From a City perspective I think Gundogan will start but he’s got competition in the midfield with Kimmich, Goretzka, Musiala and maybe Muller dropping in.
They didn’t have the best Nations League campaign, they did better than England though. They lost unexpectedly to Hungary but other than that, they are unbeaten all year, having played some tough matches.
Japan
Japan continue their impressive run of making every World Cup since 1998. They come into this on the back of a decent World Cup showing in 2018, where they were close to knocking Belgium out and making the quarter-final. They are arguably stronger at this World Cup, Mitoma has been playing well for Brighton, Kamada has been impressive for Frankfurt and the rest of the squad mainly plays in the top leagues around Europe.
Japan finished behind Saudi Arabia in qualifying but that’s not looking too bad all of a sudden, they’ve had an inconsistent year but I expect they’ll be competitive in Qatar. It is a tough group though.