World Cup Group I Preview

Group I

France → Qualified as UEFA group winner, ranked 1st in the FIFA rankings

Senegal → Qualified as CAF group winner, ranked 15th in the FIFA rankings

Iraq → Qualified through FIFA playoff, ranked 56th in the FIFA rankings

Norway → Qualified as UEFA group winner, ranked 31st in the FIFA rankings

Before we get started here with the rest of the post, I want to take the time to mention how insanely difficult this group will be and why I believe it is the group of death this year. France is the best team in the world right now, Senegal is one of the top African teams, Norway has Erling Haaland, and Iraq thrives when counted out. This is going to be a fascinating group that truly could have any one advance.

France Team Preview

The French are bringing back another insanely strong squad to try and win their second World Cup in three editions. France were a great save by Emi Martinez on Randal Kolo Muani away from winning in extra time in Qatar. To highlight how good they are this year, Kolo Muani, who is only 27, isn’t even in the squad for the tournament. France is led by Kylian Mbappe, Michael Olise, Aurlien Tchouameni, and the rest of their roster are just as good. While I think anyone could win this group, I would be shocked if France weren’t the winners.

Senegal Team Preview

The Lions of Teranga are at their third straight World Cup and are looking to advance out of a very difficult group. Senegal went undefeated in their qualifying group with a goal difference of +19. They have also had a solid 2025 into 2026, controversially winning the AFCON tournament while also having the title stripped from them. Senegal is loaded with talent at each position, but are led by Sadio Mané, the pinnacle of Senegalese football. They are an extremely solid side and are going to be hard for anyone to beat. They are going to be the biggest challenger to France in the group.

Iraq Team Preview

Iraq is back at the World Cup for the first time since 1986 where they lost all three games and only scored one goal. Qualifying for the World Cup was not an easy task, going into the playoff round of the AFC qualifying where they beat the United Arab Emirates to advance to the FIFA playoff where they beat Bolivia to qualify They did alright in the Arab Cup, advancing to the quarter finals but losing to runner-ups and World Cup qualifiers, Jordan, in that game. They don’t have many players at high level clubs but the Lions of Mesopotamia are filled with heart and carrying the weight of their nation behind them.

Norway Team Preview

I don’t usually add pictures to these posts but I am going to add the Norway team photo below because of how awesome it is. This is a group of guys who haven’t qualified for a World Cup since 1998 but might be the scariest team to face in terms of the amount of goals they can churn out. They have the best striker in the world in Erling Haaland who is backed by Alexander Sorloth and Martin Odegaard. The Norwegians didn’t lose a single game in qualifying and had a goal difference of +32. This is a team that is going to shock everyone and win games because of the volume of goals they can score.

Ben’s Predictions

Best Game: Senegal vs Norway

This game is going to be a blast to watch. It will be the position less free flowing Senegal style of play against the goal scoring and offensive machine that is Norway. Two styles of play that aren’t necessarily conflicting, but are certainly different. I see a lot of goals and wide open play in this game, it’s not going to be one to miss.

Underrated Game: Norway vs France

Crazy that the number one team in the world is in the underrated game, but I think this is going to be a grind game for France. They aren’t going to be the best team by a wide margin and if they get sloppy on defense, they won’t stop Haaland. On the other side, Norway’s defense can’t sleep on the volume of talent that France has, especially in Mbappe. This might be another wide open, high-scoring game that will be a lot of fun to watch,

Dark Horse: Norway

I am going to sound like a broken record here but Norway can score a lot of goals and what helps teams that may be undermatched in other parts of the field? Goals. Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard are going to be linking up for so many goals and are going to shoot themselves into every single game they play. The World Cup is built for Cinderella teams to emerge and I am picking Norway to do just that.

Let Down Team: France

Only a team with immense expectations can be a let down team and France fits the mold perfectly. I will keep this section short though because I would be willing to bet my house (I won’t and I don’t gamble) that France will advance to the knockout stage and go far in the tournament.

Final Group Stage Results

  1. France

  2. Norway

  3. Senegal*

  4. Iraq

*Senegal advances as a top third place finisher

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March Madness Bracket Prediction 3/3

Image
Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog post! I have been making bracket and seed list predictions for the last few weeks and wanted to post it for anyone who is interested to take a look at. I’ll put screenshots and link to the bracket below as well as breaking down some of the decisions I made. If you click on the link, you will see the seeds listed out, the conference champions (in italics), the first four teams, the first four out, next four out, and the next next four out. If you have any questions feel free to reach out! Top 4 Seeds The top 3 one seeds (Duke, Michigan, and Arizona) seem to be consensus among myself and the other websites posting their brackets. A lot of people flip-flop Florida and UConn, but currently I think Florida will take the spot. This will obviously change depending on the rest of their results. I think that Illinois, Houston, and Michigan State are the best remaining teams and they are my 2-seeds. I have Gonzaga as my top 3-seed but I think they are ...
Read more

March 6th and 7th Men's Basketball Recap

In today’s post I am going to go over the meaningful games from March 6th and 7th along with their potential impact on the bracket. There are a lot of games to cover and I want to make an updated bracket so the recaps may be brief.  March 6th 18. Saint John’s vs Seton Hall (72-65) Saint John’s clinches a share of the Big East title, taking down Seton Hall on Friday. A big win for Pitino and the Red Storm as they wait to see if a bad Marquette team can beat UConn to claim the outright Big East Championship. Update: Marquette beat UConn, Saint John’s are your Big East Champions.  19. Miami OH vs Ohio (OT 110-108) What. A. Game. If you didn’t watch this game then you missed out on some amazing Maction Friday night. In a back and forth, high scoring no defense game, Ohio missed the game winning three pointer and the Red Hawks of Miami finished the regular season 31-OH. The refs did everything they could to give the game to Ohio, calling five technical fouls on Miami. This team is ...
Read more

March 13th Auto-Bid Preview

  Today is another look at the auto-bid teams and a deep dive on their teams.  Big Sky Champion: Idaho PPG: 78.7 OREB: 10.7 DREB: 26.7 AST: 12.5 FG%: 44.8% 3P%: 35.6% FT%: 73.5% Top Players: Jackson Rasmussen (13.9 Pts, 4.7 Reb, 1.3 Ast) Kolton Mitchell (13.7 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 3.9 Ast) Biko Johnson (12.4 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 2.4 Ast) Biggest Strengths: Good defensive rebounding team Shoots the three ball well Biggest Weaknesses: Low volume of two point shots Not the best field goal percentage Likely Seed: 16 How will they do? Idaho is a good defensive and rebounding team who can hit the three well when they are on their game. A fun story that is probably going to end in the play-in game, but who knows maybe the Vandals can win a game! Coastal Athletic Champion: Hofstra PPG: 75.6 OREB: 12.4 DREB: 26.9 AST: 12.8 FG%: 44.2% 3P%: 36.8% FT%: 74.6% Top Players: Cruz Davis (20.2 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 4.6 Ast) Preston Edmead (15.9 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 4.4 Ast) German Plotnikov (9.3 Pts, 3.4 Reb, ...
Read more