Italy
After beating France on penalties in Germany to lift the cup after the controversial final that saw outgoing French football legend sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi for making some slurs about his family that have never been fully revealed, Italy are back to try and retain the trophy in South Africa.
Having has slightly less success in their penalty shootout at Euro 2008 where they were knocked out by winners Spain, Italy will be looking to once again prove themselves to be the best in the game, and with four World Cups to their name they will be hoping to equal Brazil’s record five.
Italy would have been unique in being the only one of the top seeded teams whose players all play in its domestic league, but with David Beckham (who plays in Italy himself) ruled out due to injury England now share this feature.
Italy have a reasonably experienced squad with the likes of Pirlo, Cannavaro and Gattuso all in their thirties.
The odds are currently 12-1 for the azzuri to keep hold of the cup, the same price as Holland and Germany.
New Zealand
Like South Africa, New Zealand is a sporting nation most closely associated with rugby, their football team’s nickname being the “All Whites”, as opposed to their famous “All Blacks” rugby team.
They are coming to the World Cup for the first time since their only previous outing in 1982, where they finished bottom of their group having lost all their matches and attaining a goal difference of -10, which is pretty bad considering that was over just three games.
New Zealand are the absolute outsiders with the World Cup bookmakers, most offering around 2000-1 but, if you shop around you can get 3000-1 on them for an outright win. The squad mostly comprises players from the New Zealand and Australian leagues, but some have traveled to play in the English Championship and the Scottish Premier League.
Paraguay
Paraguay have qualified for all of the last four World Cups, making it out of the group stage in both 1998 and 2002, though in both cases the round of 16 was where the journey ended. They also reached the quarter finals of the Copa America in both 2004 and 2007.
A young team, with all but Sunderland’s Paolo de Silva under 30, Paraguay qualified third in the South American region behind Brazil and Chile respectively. Interestingly, they were five points ahead of second favourites Argentina.
Paraguay are at around 80-1 at the time of writing. Similar odds are available for the USA, Mexico and Ghana.
Slovakia
Slovakia has only existed since 1994, prior to which Slovakia and the Czech Republic formed Czechoslovakia. These have been separate teams ever since, and this is the first time Slovakia has qualified for a World Cup.
They qualified first in their group, which also contained Northern Ireland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland.
The Slovenian team is spread out all over the European leagues, with one of their best know players being Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel.
Alongside Slovenia, they have the longest odds of any European team, at 100-1 to win.
Prediction
Italy should have no problems topping this group. With Slovakia and New Zealand both low ranking newcomers it looks like, barring any upsets, the Italians will go through along with Paraguay. Slovakia may have the potential to shake this up, but it is hard to see New Zealand coming anywhere but bottom here. Looking for more World Cup predictions?
1. Italy
2. Paraguay
3. Slovakia
4. New Zealand
