Of all the teams I’ve played against with Libya, Algeria were the strongest and are currently ranked number one in Africa by FIFA. They beat us 1-0 and 2-0 in the 2012 African Cup of Nations eliminator, scorelines that probably flattered us a bit. There are no household names, but a lot of them play in Europe so physically they’re strong and keep the ball very well. They had a great victory against Romania, and have only one loss in 13 games which makes them a good outside Group H bet.
I would’t be surprised if Ivory Coast top Group C and go on a bit of a run. It’s an ageing squad, but up front you’ve Bony, Gervinho, Salou and Drogba who put themselves about and consistently score goals. Yaya Toure is arguably the best midfielder in the world at the moment, and Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote is also a big physical presence. It’d be interesting to see what the odds are on Ivory Coast getting to the semi-final (14-1 with Paddy Power) because there’s quality throughout the side.
One of the best drilled teams will be Iran, under manager Carlos Queiroz. They don’t do holidays, so they’d have finished their season at the start of May and gone straight into World Cup prep mode, first in South Africa, and then Europe. Technically Iran are very efficient – they like to keep it on the ground and everyone wants the ball – but they’re not that fit. A lot of the chances I got playing for Persepolis in the Iranian Pro League would’ve come in the last 15 minutes when the opposition were tiring. They don’t do much gym work either, so physically they’re not the strongest.
Ghana qualified by beating a strong Egypt side 7-3 on aggregate and will definitely win their group opener against the USA, but will they get any change out of Germany or Portugal? I can’t see it.
I played against Cameroon in their second last World Cup qualifier and – this isn’t sour grapes, honest! – they were really fortunate to beat us 1-0. We’d been top of the group by two points going into the game, but Cameroon were handed back the three points Togo had taken off them because it turned out Togo had fielded an ineligible player. Samuel Eto’o wasn’t amazing and came off at half-time injured, but Alex Song was incredible. Again, with Croatia, Mexico and Brazil in their group, I can’t see Cameroon progressing.”