Every World Cup usually has a Group of Death. After last Friday's draw in South Africa everyone was saying that Brazil are in the Group of Death along with Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea.

There is no question that it is a tough group but I believe Brazil will come out on top as long as they don't go into their games half hearted.

But they have a manager in Dunga who will make sure everyone keeps their feet on the ground. After questions about Dunga when he first took over, the captain of the World Cup winning 1994 team has really toughened up the side.

Some of his critics say that Dunga's Brazil do not play like the Brazilian teams of old but football is different these days. You cannot always play champagne football ¿ sometimes you have to grind out a victory and that is what Dunga's Brazil can do.

However they can still play that beautiful game and that is what makes them so dangerous.

I am hoping that the Ivory Coast have a great tournament and the second spot will probably be between them and Portugal but do not count out North Korea. Any time you start believing that they will be easy just cast your mind back to 1966. Enough said!

England should be happy with their group but like I have said before, if you come into a World Cup and start counting your victories before you have played then you could be in for a rude awakening.

England's toughest opponent will be the United States. Many in England sneer at the US but they will provide a tough test for England.

They have players in the Premier League and one thing about Americans is that you will not find a group who will run harder.

They give it their all ¿ they have a never-say-die attitude and can beat most sides on their day. After all look at what they did last summer in the Confederation's Cup.

They beat European champions Spain and were winning against Brazil in the final before going down. If anyone thinks that no one cared about the Confederation's Cup then all you had to do was look at the faces of the Brazilian players after they won. It meant a lot to them.

Algeria and Slovenia could be tricky opponents but I will predict that England and the US will be the two teams to advance from this group.

Spain have been drawn in the group featuring Switzerland, Honduras and Chile and they should be fairly happy. Chile had a good qualifying campaign and I would say they and Spain will go on.

France have avoided the really big boys although they do have to take on Mexico who have a good history in the World Cup.

I hate so say it, but I think hosts South Africa will not advance. South Africa in the past have had some great players but unfortunately this South African team is not strong at all. They are going to have the biggest support and it would be great to see them advance because you always want the host country to do well. It makes for a better tournament. But I don't think that is going to happen.

Germany have Australia, Serbia and Ghana in their group and it is a fairly tough one. I think Ghana will be one of the toughest African teams but I want to see them and the likes of Ivory Coast be more clinical in front of goal ¿ it is something which has been a problem in the past. But they have some excellent players.

Australia and Serbia will both be good teams but Germany come with experience having won the World Cup three times. They always rise to the occasion and I have to say they will advance.

Defending champions Italy have the easiest group of any of the top teams. They face New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovakia.

I am looking for Holland to finally step up to the plate. Everyone knows how many good players they have but at every tournament they flatter to deceive. They are in a fairly tough group with Japan, Cameroon and Denmark.

I believe Denmark will give them the toughest opposition. Denmark are a team that are very organised and they play a bit like England. Taking them for granted could be the death of you. Cameroon have Eto'o and some other top players but for me the top African teams will be Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Argentina, who had a bad qualifying campaign, play Nigeria, South Korea and Greece.

One would hope that they will advance with all the great talent they have. But if Maradona is going to stay on as manager he will have to blend some experience with his talented youngsters like Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero.

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Juventus must be in shock after getting knocked out of the Champions League this week when they were crushed 4-1 at home by Bayern Munich. It was only last weekend when they came away winners against Serie A leaders Inter Milan and once would have thought they would be riding the crest of a wave going into the match this week. But they were poor ¿ very, very poor.

Defending champions Barcelona advanced with a 2-1 win over Dynamo Kiev with Messi scoring from a great free kick. However he limped off with an ankle injury at the end and is doubtful for this weekend's match.

But watching Barcelona can make you dizzy. If you give the ball away to them you are not getting it back as they showed this week.

Joining Barca in the next round will be some big guns ¿ Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Arsenal along with Bordeaux, Porto, Stuttgart and Olympiakos, Fiorentina, CSKA Moscow, Sevilla and Lyon.

It was also nice to see Michael Owen score a hat-trick for Manchester United against against Wolfsburg. That should shut his critics up for a while.