England got a reasonable draw in the first round but it's not as straightforward as people think. You haven't beat Sweden since about 1638 and Paraguay will be no pushovers coming from the school of hard knocks in S America.

As Turi said earlier there's always at least one surprise team (Turkey and Sth Korea in '02 semi finals) and one of the big guns usually goes home early (Argentina and France in '02). I fancy Italy to go home early, they've got a tough group, Ghana are probably the best of the African teams.

My surpise package...Spain!! The laws of probability say that they must click sometime and with the tournament in Europe and it being the last hurrah for the likes of Raul, Pujol, Xavi etc I've a sneaking suspicion they might at last come good and maybe grab a semi final place.

As for the winners...it's hard to look past Brazil. If they manage to avoid Argentina can you really see anyone beating them??

One to watch...look out for Lionel Messi of Argentina, he's still only 18 and he's been getting rave reviews for Barcelona