Group G: Brazil, Ivory Coast, North Korea, Portugal

BRAZIL: FIFA RANKING 1, ODDS TO WIN 9/2

Brazil may be in their customary position, high up in the bookmakers' charts but any romantics closing their eyes and dreaming of a journey back to the early 1980s are doing just that – dreaming. Here we are in the second decade of the new millennium and the samba has been replaced by the sombre.

True, with players such as Kaka and – whisper the name at Eastlands – Robinho, there are magicians in the tradition of Zico, Socrates and Falcao. But they are surrounded by artisans such as Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo and Elano. It used to be all about what Brazil could do; now the philosophy is as much centred around what the opposition shouldn't be allowed to do.