“To be a favorite in a World Cup you need to have the know-how of winning a World Cup or have a reference of a previous generation that won the World Cup,” the Belgian coach said. “So for me there’s only five nations that [have] that.”
This could be the World Cup that breaks that model though. Germany, after all, brought nine players and a coach to Russia from the team that won a World Cup four years ago and that didn’t help; Die Mannschaft was shut out twice and finished last in its group.
Among those who went through instead?