eymar and Vinícius Júnior will team up majestically and fire Brazil to an unprecedented sixth World Cup triumph. Or Lionel Messi will round off an exceptional career by finally lifting the trophy for his beloved Argentina. Or maybe Kylian Mbappé will continue his journey to greatness and score the goals that hand France another World Cup. Those are the most common predictions offered when it comes to the most prestigious international football tournament taking place in Qatar this year. But maybe none of those things will happen. Maybe we should be keeping an eye on some other teams. It is true that the biggest nations - in footballing terms - have always won the World Cup. Italy beating France on penalties at Berlin’s famous Olympiastadion in 2006 is probably the closest we have come to something even resembling an upset in recent years. But, even though the likes of Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain - and even England - have been installed as the favourites to be victorious in Qatar this December, it could be argued that international football has levelled up somewhat. Just think of the countries not mentioned there - Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Denmark. Would it really be a huge surprise if any of those four lifted the trophy at the Lusail
