Group A - Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay

[James]

14 June 2018
8:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow


15 June 2018
17:00 YEKT (UTC+5)
Egypt
Uruguay
Central Stadium, Yekaterinburg


19 June 2018
21:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Russia
Egypt
Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg


20 June 2018
18:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Uruguay
Saudi Arabia
Rostov Arena, Rostov-on-Don


25 June 2018
18:00 SAMT (UTC+4)
Uruguay
Russia
Cosmos Arena, Samara


25 June 2018
17:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Volgograd Arena, Volgograd

 

[Uppercut]

Egypt likely to face Sergio Ramos in the R16 if they qualify. Could be... interesting.

 

[wpdavid]

Egypt likely to face Sergio Ramos in the R16 if they qualify. Could be... interesting.

Not least because they're now saying that Salah may well be fit for the WC.

 

[Uppercut]

Not least because they're now saying that Salah may well be fit for the WC.

Indeed. "Fit" is almost definitely an overstatement, but he'll still be their best player if he plays in a sling while on morphine.

 

[wpdavid]

Indeed. "Fit" is almost definitely an overstatement, but he'll still be their best player if he plays in a sling while on morphine.

 

[straw man]

looking forward to seeing which oppressive dictatorship wins this group

 

[Pothas]

Well the democracy should win it fairly easily.

 

[Daemon]

I know nothing about football but this group seems easier than the others. Is this true?

 

[sledger]

I know nothing about football but this group seems easier than the others. Is this true?

Not necessarily, because most of the teams are of similar/mediocre ability. Uruguay should top the group as they are comfortably the best side, but there isn't a huge amount between the rest, so could be close. Expecting some fairly stodgy games.

 

[sledger]

Fairly predictable, but I would imagine the group will end:

1) Uruguay
2) Russia
3) Egypt
4) Saudi Arabia

Russia will plod their way through on the back of some ugly wins and the home advantage I suspect. Hopefully I'm wrong and Egypt pip them to it. They have a handy squad made up of players playing in mostly decent leagues, so they could be capable of pulling a few surprises, but a lot will depend on Salah I guess. Not a lot of goals in the squad otherwise.

Know very little of Saudi Arabia, but a quick look on their wiki page suggests that almost none of their players play outside Saudi Arabia, which doesn't bode well for them. Sounds like they are well-organised and could give it a good go though. Will be lols if they effectively knock Russia out or something.

 

[Daemon]

Not necessarily, because most of the teams are of similar/mediocre ability. Uruguay should top the group as they are comfortably the best side, but there isn't a huge amount between the rest, so could be close. Expecting some fairly stodgy games.

I should have phrased it better, is the overall quality of this group lower than the others?

If we simply total the FIFA world rankings for each group, France’s Group C looks like the toughest group with a combined ranking of 71. For fun, we also included the top four teams in the world that did not qualify for the World Cup in a hypothetical Group X. That group would be tougher than any group that is in the World Cup.

As for Russia’s Group A, those four teams add up to a combined ranking of 180, 77 more than any other group.

Any chance Russia rigged this is what I'm getting at basically

 

[harsh.ag]

100%. Salah gunning 'em down would be funny

 

[Uppercut]

Any chance Russia rigged this is what I'm getting at basically

Fifa always rig the World Cup draw in favour of the hosts by making them top seeds, because the atmospheres are much better if they manage to stay in the tournament for a while. It's standard procedure, and oddly, no one ever objects.

It usually results in one or two incredibly crap groups, like this one.

 

[sledger]

The opening game always involving the hosts usually makes that a fairly anticlimactic affair as well (unless the host nation is actually good of course), as it usually means the game will be pretty crap.

I can understand the logic, as if you want a big party atmosphere to kick things off after some sort of ceremony, it makes sense for the host nation to be playing. But in terms of footballing specactle it can blow pretty hard.

I keep getting excited because I keep remembering the tournament starts in less than two days from now. But then I remember that the opening game is Russia vs Saudi Arabia, and then am instantly deflated. Having looked at all the other group stage fixtures just now, I honestly think this is the game that I have the least interest in/enthusiasm to watch from the entire first round, so it's a shame that it's the curtain-raiser. Now I've said this it'll probably be a multi-goal thriller or something, but oh well.

Anyway, should go back to having the defending champs in the opener imo, because at least then you should get to see at least one team full of stars etc. No star-power at all really involved in the game on Thurs. They should also go back to having more than one game on the opening day). Have good memories of Brazil beating the Jocks in 98 and Senegal beating France in 2002.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, I think they made the change before they knew how many future tournaments would go to countries with **** teams. Nothing could possibly happen on Thursday that would make it anywhere near as memorable as Cameroon beating Argentina, Senegal beating France, or even Germany and Costa Rica thumping in a series of absolute thunderbastards in 2006.

 

[Pothas]

It is probably the worst possible first game but in a way I am ok with it because in what other context would I ever be really excited for Russia v Saudi Arabia?

 

[sledger]

Haha yeah, hadn't thought about it from that perspective tbf.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Ha, good header but surely a foul if it had been at the other end.

 

[Spark]

Saudi are properly poo

 

[Niall]

When Robbie Williams isn't the low light of today's action, we have problems. Two bad teams Clive.