Playing against Uruguay, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in Group A, hosts Russia are expected to make it through. But they will then find it difficult to go further as they might encounter Portugal or Spain in the round of 16.

The record five Asian teams may face total destruction after three group matches.

Just-qualified Australia will have to survive games against two European sides, France and Denmark. South Korea will face defending champions Germany and Sweden, which stopped four-time World Cup title owner Italy entering the 2018 campaign.

Japan might be kicked out by Poland' s Robert Lewandowski and Colombia's James Rodriguez. The pride and confidence of Iranians built during Asia preliminaries might be smashed by the two blades of the scissors Portugal and Spain. As the lowest-ranked seed in the campaign, Saudi Arabia will struggle along with Egypt.

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