African Nations In The 2014 World Cup Draw

The much awaited World Cup draw, has finally arrived and by now all the participating countries knows, which teams they will be facing in the group phase, of the summer mundial.

How did the African countries fared in the draw?

In Group A, Cameroon who has the African record of 7 World Cup appearances, are in the same group as the host nation - Brazil, Croatia and Mexico. Brazil is not only the five times champion, but as the host and a very strong football nation, everyone expects them to qualify in the group.
They are also one of the favourites to win the cup for the sixth time.

Croatia, Cameroon and Mexico, though not as strong as they were during the times of Davor Suker, Roger Miller and Hugo Sanchez, will be putting up good performance in other to qualify from the group.

In Group C, is the African number one ranked team - Ivory Coast with Columbia, Greece and Japan. One can safely say that Ivory Coast, has a good chance of going through in this group.

There is no outstanding team to be afraid of in this group, even though Columbia has a deadly striker - Rademel Falcao of FC Monaco. I think that all the teams here have a good chance of qualifying from the group.

The next African country is Nigeria in Group F, with Argentina, Iran and Bosnia. Nigeria is once again paired with their World Cup nemesis - Argentina. In five World Cup appearances , Nigeria will be meeting Argentina for the fourth time. Nigeria lost their three previous WC encounters.

In 1994, Nigeria lost 2 - 1 in USA, in 2002 they lost 1 - 0 in South Korea/Japan and in 2010 in South Africa they lost again 1 - 0. They will be hoping to turn the tide this time around. Iran and Bosnia- Herzegovina can also spring a surprise in this group. Argentina and Nigeria seem likely to go through, that is on paper, because football is not mathematics.

Then in Group G, Ghana  seem to get the toughest of all the other African countries. Ghana is paired with two of the teams they played before in the previous World Cups - Germany and USA. They met USA in their first two appearances and Germany in 2010. They never met Portugal before. This is a strong group, any of them is capable of qualifying.

The last African team in the draw is Algeria in Group H with Russia, Belgium and Korea Republic. In this group Belgium in their current form is likely to go through with Russia. But as you know in football, anything can happen.

Group A
Brazil, Croatia, Cameroon and Mexico

Group B
Spain, Netherlands, Chile and Australia

Group C
Columbia, Greece, Ivory Coast and Japan

Group D
Uruguay, Costa Rica, England and Italy

Group E
Switzerland, Equador, France and Honduras

Group F
Argentina, Nigeria, Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Group G
Germany, Ghana, Portugal and USA

Group H
Belgium, Russia, Algeria and Korea Republic

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