Chelsea In Brazil!

The final draw for the eight groups of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will take place tomorrow.i.e. Friday, 6th of December. On the eve of the the draw which will take place at Costa de Sauipe, Bahia, we at Team360 take a look at Chelsea’s representation in Brazil next summer and their road to the World Cup.

Brazil, being the hosts, gained automatic qualification. David Luiz, Oscar and Ramires regularly feature for the Seleção and Chelsea’s summer acquisition Willian Borges da Silva earned a recent call-up from Scolari. Luiz and Oscar will form the spine of Brazil in their challenge for the World Cup on their home soil. The highly versatile Ramires and talented Willian will also play a crucial role, if in Scolari’s plans.

Marco van Ginkel’s Netherlands were one of the first European nations to qualify for the World Cup on 10th of September, 2013 when they finished as winners of UEFA qualifying Group D with 28 points off 10 matches. Romania, who finished runners-up were the other nation to qualify from Group D as Hungary, Turkey, Estonia and Andorra crashed out. The Oranje, en route to Brazil, scored 34 goals and conceded just 5. van Ginkel, who has two senior caps and was a part of the squad which faced Estonia on September 6, 2013 is a doubt for next summer’s showpiece event after suffering from a cruciate ligament injury in late September.

Belgium, ranked 5th on FIFA standings, qualified as winners of UEFA qualifying Group A. Chelsea, who have quite a few Belgians on their books, will be represented by Kevin de Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku. de Bruyne scored 4 goals while Lukaku & Hazard a couple each during the qualifiers as Belgium won 8 of the 10 matches, without losing any.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXLdXxqUECg
Serbia and Branislav Ivanovic, who were also a part of Group A, failed to qualify as Croatia took the runners-up slot. We’ll definitely miss Branna The Bear in Brazil.

Germany, one of the favorites for the World Cup qualified on 11th of October, 2013 as they topped UEFA Group C. Chelsea attacking midfielder Andre Schuerrle, a regular feature of the German national side, scored 4 goals, which includes a hattrick against Sweden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHB0QDOG-Bo

England finished ahead of Ukraine in Group C and automatically qualified for Brazil. The Three Lions did have a few hick-ups en route to their group winner position but qualified nonetheless on 15th of October, 2013. Frank Lampard, Gary Cahill and Ashley Cole will probably count among Hodgson’s picks for summer. Lampard scored 4 goals during the qualifiers. England have always been under pressure to perform on the world stage & how they perform in Brazil will be interesting to watch for football fans across the globe.

Spain, the reigning World Champions, earned entry to Brazil automatically as they won UEFA qualifying Group I with France finishing a close second. Fernando Torres and Mata form an integral part of the star-studded Spain squad and full-back Cesar Azpilicueta recently got called up to the squad. Spain’s loss to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final has provided an interesting prelude to the summer showpiece event as it is touted to be one of the most open World Cups in decades.

Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon qualified for World Cup 2014 after winning CAF Third Round matches, thus paving the way for the African contingency at Chelsea to make their way to Brazil.
Christian Atsu and Michael Essien’s Ghana won 7-3 on aggregate against Egypt to book their places for the plane to Brazil.
John Obi Mikel, Kenneth Omeruo and Victor Moses’ Nigeria won 4-1 on aggregate against Ethiopia.
One of Chelsea’s summer acquisition Samuel Eto’o, who leads the line Cameroon, will also take part in the World Cup having won 4-1 against Tunisia.

Twenty-three other nations from across the world will make up the eight groups, who will then engage in a battle of tactics & gameplay to be crowned as the World Champions. Tomorrow, we will bring to you the result of the draw and the kind of opponents our beloved Chelsea players might face during the World Cup.