World Cup 2026 Preview

25:50So players on the far side of the pitch getting over to the touchline. as I said before the refueling the actual breathing techniques to try and calm your heart rate down and then the impact it's actually going to have on the game because with such a delay in the game it's going to take a wee bit of time everybody will reset and then it will take a wee bit of time to get back into your rhythm again so we've spoke about it we've kind of put plans in place that we think is going to work for us but realistically you're not going to really get a true feel of it until the competitive games start

26:22Chris Sutton:and obviously you've heard a bit of the discussion we were having about the order of your group games. Do you think it does make a difference, the order? I think for any team in the tournament, you want to try and get off to as good a start as you can. That is... Everybody will be thinking the same thing. I think with us having our first game against Haiti, and the managers touched on this as well, in terms of because Haiti are out of sight, out of mind, people probably don't give them the respect they deserve, and they're a very dangerous team. But we're going into it. Really confident. Our prep so far has been excellent.

26:57We've had tough games and games that are probably true to what we're going to come up against. So we definitely do sit here feeling confident that we can start the tournament well.

27:06Chris Sutton:And then Steve Clarke, there's a quote I've got here from Steve Clarke saying, I've not really enjoyed the previous two tournaments. So this time it's a different Steve Clarke. So it's a two-prong question, Steve, I suppose. Is it a different Steve Clarke? And is there a feeling that, obviously, I know you're there to win and go as far as you can. But is there a sense of, well, we've had some Euros, so actually we are going to enjoy this? The manager's definitely more comfortable and probably is enjoying it a bit more. I think the manager's intense and it's about winning for him and he holds that internally on himself quite a lot.

27:45But as we've spoke about the whole time, we've done really good research, we've done really good preparation. Our game plan going into the games, we think is really good. Football's football. You'll win, you'll lose. But as long as we can say, we've done everything that we can, we've picked the team that we feel we believe can win it, we've made the subs, then in this unbelievable stage that is the World Cup, you have to enjoy it. You have to. And maybe that's after a game, maybe it's the early start of this week, but you've definitely got to take it all in.

28:20Chris Sutton:and will you plan to catch up with Chris during this during the tournament erm we'll wait and see I know he's a busy busy man out there what a what a beautifully diplomatic answer on which to finish Stephen thank you very much for giving us your time this evening appreciate it thank you five lights for hello I'm Alistair Bruce Ball and I'll be commentating on the World Cup for the BBC this summer It's a commentator favorite World Cup moment. France 4, Argentina 3 in Russia 2018. Amazing goal from Benjamin Pavard in that game on the half volley. Pavard with the right one. Unbelievable! Unbelievable goal!

29:07What makes the World Cup such a special tournament? It's its exotic nature. I think particularly as a kid, it just seemed to happen in far off lands that you'd only ever dreamt about or heard about. The People World Cup 2026. starts Thursday. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Daily at the People World Cup 2026. With Matt Chapman. Listen on BBC Sounds.

29:30Chris Sutton:Rachel Corsi, Steph Horton and Chris Sutton are with us as we look ahead to the World Cup which starts tomorrow. Mexico against South Africa. You can hear with us live from inside the stadium tomorrow night. Let's talk to Dean Smith next. Former Aston Villa manager, a current Charlotte FC head coach because that is where Scotland are. We just heard from Stephen Naismith a little bit earlier on. Evening, Dean. How are you? Evening, Chappers. I'm good. Thank you. Yourself? Very well, thank you. How much over the course of your season would you get weather challenges? I was just thinking about it, to be honest, and two and a half years I've been there now and I think I've had three games that have paused because of the weather.

30:13Chris Sutton:There's been a couple of delays. The first one I had, I remember it was at Red Bull and it was like an hour and 20 minutes delay. And I think we had 22 ,000 in the ground and then we kicked off for the second half. There was about 4 ,000 left. Yeah, so it can be a common thing, but not as common as you would be made to think, I suppose. What do you, I mean, what protocols do you put in place for a delay? And what do you, and kind of, I'm sort of thinking, you know, Do you allow your players to go on their phones, for example, during the rain delay? To be honest, when it first happened against Red Bull, yeah, I did.

30:53Chris Sutton:It was an hour and 20 minutes. And you get a time to go and re-warm up before the game starts again. So, you know, a half an hour before it starts again, right? Phones away, start getting focused in and get ready for the game. Because I was talking to the FA about this, Steph, just when we were talking about England's preparations when I was with them for something. And the phones thing, I think, is kind of quite a big thing because, I don't know, say you're an hour into a game and then you have this weather delay. Do you really want your players looking at what people may be saying about them on social media?

31:29It's so hard because I think those that are a little bit old school wouldn't want to be on the phone because you want to try and stay focused. But the generation now, everything is on the phone. So it's like, how do you get the players to be able to relax in their moments that they can? But then like what Dean said, as soon as that 30 minutes when you're going to go and warm up, it's like, how do you refocus? So I think I would be very much against having the phones because now social media, you could actually check on what your performance is like. People will probably look at what they've done and what people are saying.

32:00And you don't really want that interference, but I think you just can't stop it. So I think the more you try and stop someone doing it, the more probably likely they want to try and do it. I think you've just conceded that that makes you officially old school. I was very old school. I think that's when I knew that my time was up, that when it was really annoying, is that people were checking the phones at half time. I used to just turn mine off. But yeah, for sure, I'll put myself in that bracket. I think what's interesting, because I did play in the States for a long time, I actually think they had a slightly different sort of culture to that.

32:29It wasn't such a... I found there they were a lot more relaxed over sort of phone use in the changing rooms. We had some girls that when we would get a delay, the way they would pass the time is they would do dance routines and things. And I initially...

32:43Chris Sutton:I imagine Ian Dennis and Stephen Walker could do something similar. I hope so. I've tried to prompt them. So we'll await the footage. But I think you've got to understand that these things can go on for a while. So you kind of need to have almost a switch off, kind of take your mind elsewhere. Because I've literally been involved where the game kicks off like four hours after it's supposed to. So you can't stay dialed into game mode for those four hours. You'd be absolutely exhausted before we even kicked a ball. So I think it's a good thing to do to say, do you know what? Let's do what you need, individually do what you need.

33:16Once we get the sort of firm time of we're going out to warm up in 20 minutes, 30 minutes, then it's a case of, right, let's go back to the standards we've set. And I imagine that that is going to be a team by team scenario, what they're allowed to do if there is delays.

33:31Chris Sutton:The Scotland camp, Dina, seem to be very happy with both the facility and being in Charlotte. So sell Charlotte to us. It's quite easy, actually. It's a great city to be in. Quite a diverse city. I think it's a big financial district now. A lot of the big banks are leaving New York and going to Charlotte as well. But yeah, the weather's fantastic. The golf courses are fantastic. But one of the biggest reasons I actually went there was the facilities at the training ground. And that's where you spend the most of your time. You know, we've got two main pitches that Scotland are using at the moment.

34:05Chris Sutton:We've got three further grass pitches up the hill. And, you know, everything there that Scotland need is catered for. So, Clarkie came in March. I think the only thing he was worried about was in March the grass was yellow. And those who have been in America will know that the Bermuda grass lies dormant until the end of April when the sun gets at it and then it goes green again. did the facilities surprise you when you went out there then yeah they did a little bit um i wasn't sure what to see in terms of mls facilities i'd i'd been over to minnesota with aston villa before and trained at their training facilities before but charlotte's were a step up from that a lot of the the college university um facilities are unbelievable um wherever you go college college life is massive in the States.

34:55Chris Sutton:And, you know, so my son was at NC State and I saw the facilities that they had. So I knew a new club coming into the MLS was going to have good facilities. When you were in camp, what did you want from facilities? I think it was a bit different for us because we were probably allowed that little bit of freedom to go out into towns, go to coffee shops, because in terms of that public view, when we were, say, in France in 2019, you probably weren't under the spotlight as much. I can imagine it's changed a lot now, but I think... Although, to be fair, Steve Clarke has said, it is close to the city centre and that will help the players relax and have things to do.

35:32Chris Sutton:I felt our camp for Euro 2024 was a bit isolated. I think it is important that there's an option there for players. I think the more options that you do have, I think it gives the players the sense of that you're away for a long time in a tournament. It can be the same, it can be the same day, it can be the same routine. So I think having that option to even maybe meet your family for an hour at a coffee shop, it just gives you that little bit of kind of normality what you would normally do at home. But I think in general, we were very lucky chappers in terms of we always had one of the best hotels.

36:03We had a lot of space, which is probably really important in terms of just getting out of your room and being able to mix and socialise. And I think for me, it was always about them social areas just to be able to meet up and chat and maybe talk about not talk about football for a bit. and just to have, there's always a games room, there was always a room to watch Love Island for those that wanted to because the summer tournaments were always over that. So I think that variety, but also them options really made it help as a player.

36:32Chris Sutton:They would be able to go into Charlotte and have a coffee, Dean, and not get too, as much as 30 men all dressed identically are going to get bothered. It's a safe and walkable city and because it's on a hill, they call it uptown rather than downtown. But yeah, I've already been texting John McGinn and he was amazed at the facilities and I've told him to keep off the scooters around town because they can be a bit dangerous. But yeah, it's interesting because I've worked with quite a few of the Scottish boys and they've all been texting me and telling me how good the facilities are. And we had some games in the Club World Cup.

37:12Chris Sutton:Bayern Munich had stopped in town. Real Madrid had stopped in town. So a lot of clubs and countries before that, and Concert Cafe as well, have also played in Charlotte and stopped in Charlotte. You mentioned John McGinn. How proud of you of where he is at? Oh, unbelievably well. You know, I saw him do an interview the other day and he mentioned all the managers that he'd had at Aston Villa since he's been there and how each one of them had helped him. Steve Bruce signed him and helped him become, you know, an Aston Villa player. I helped him become a Premier League player. Steven Gerrard helped him become a leader.

37:49Chris Sutton:And now Unai's took his game on to the next level. And, you know, just the way he talks about the game, you know, when I remember he was never the best trainer, he never used to enjoy training, but you always knew what he was going to get on a match day. And I think because he's got quite a unique running style, I think his qualities can sometimes get overlooked. Chris, when you actually look at the Scotland squad, and it's following on from again. You know, we always go into tournaments, we talk about the leadership that squads have and have they got enough leaders. Scotland have got a lot of leaders.

38:25Chris Sutton:Yeah, I think they have. And just, you know, just going back to, you know, what Dean was saying about John and his development when he was at Hibs, you know, he was a good player, but it was all about him getting to the next level. And I think, you know, there was a lot of interest from Celtic. Celtic fans still talk about the fact that they didn't get that deal over the line. And he went to Aston Villa and his game has developed. And Dean has mentioned, you know, the managers who have helped improve him and his gait and, you know, the way that he gets his big backside in. He's, you know, he's a tremendous footballer and he's a really intelligent guy.

39:02Chris Sutton:And, you know, you're talking about leadership. Yeah, I think there are leaders. McTominay's taken his game to another level by, you know, going abroad to Italy to play. A lot of Manchester United fans think, well, why did we end up letting him go? But he was brave to do that. Even the likes of people like Ryan Christie, you've got Shanklin now. Shanklin's mature in years, but he will bring great leadership to the group. So I think Scotland are in a pretty good place going into the World Cup. there'll be concerns over maybe the goalkeeping position or who are the two main centre-halves going to be.

39:44Chris Sutton:But all in all, I think that Steve Clarke and his team can feel quite good about themselves and go in with good spirits. They do have a good mix, don't they? I think we've got a great mix. I almost think actually we're at a place where it's hard to actually put your best team down on paper. I think we've got great depth and I think what Steve Clarke has built by being consistent with a lot of the players he's picked, which over the course of his tenure, people have been critical at times of it, sticking with the same group. But now we're at something like the World Cup. We've got significant players that can be leaders.

40:18We've got players that can play within shapes that allow us to play different formations, have slightly more, a bit more tactical now-sing games. We can be more attacking. We can have the ability to counter-attack well. We've got somebody like Ganondoke who can give us that electric pace. I think that's something that at the Euros, I remember we were speaking about, We just didn't have someone that maybe you could bring on that could just stretch the game that little bit. Now we do have that. And we've got a couple of younger players now in as well in the squad, which I think in terms of just the mentality, the environment, I think that's great too.

40:49Chris Sutton:I forgot to mention, Mark, Andy Robertson and people like Kenny McLean. Kenny will probably come off the bench and play his little cameos. But he's a brilliant player to have in and around the group. You've got that quality. But Andy Robertson, I forgot about him actually. How could I forget him? in terms of leadership. So Scotland are on a good play. Who does Kenny McLean play for? Norwich City. Yeah, I thought you might have got that in there. Before we let you go, Dean, let me just turn it around to the American perspective. We had Mark Warburton on Monday night, who's Sporting Director at Jacksonville now.

41:24Chris Sutton:And I'll ask you the same question I asked him, which is what would a successful World Cup for the American national team mean for you at club level? I realise Jacksonville are the level below Charlotte in the MLS. But what would it mean? I think if the national team are successful, it can be transitional for the whole game in the country. It's one of the most patriotic nations I've ever known. There's American flags all over the place and they just want to get behind their own. So I remember in 94 and they played well. They went out against Italy but were really good on that day. And I think that gave everybody a lift in the whole country because of how they'd fared.

42:08Chris Sutton:I think now they're, I mean, the MLS is 30 years old now. They feel that they've come on. I said before, I think the US have got it right in their appointments. We've Mauricio Pochettino and Emma Hayes. I think they've both been excellent so far. But they've got something, certainly Mauricio's got something to prove now for the whole nation. And is everybody ready for it or are they still just interested in the NBA finals at the moment and then they'll come to it after that? Yeah, I mean, and that's the thing with football in the US. College sport is probably bigger than any professional sport.

42:45Chris Sutton:But I think because of the distance between all the cities, you only feel it within that city. I know that Charlotte's speaking to people. I'm actually in Birmingham at the moment. I don't fly back till Wednesday. I know Charlotte is feeling it at the moment, even though they're not hosting, you know, but yeah, it'll quickly start getting the buzz around the place. Lovely to see you, Dean. Thank you. See you soon. Good to speak to you all. Good to talk to you, Dee Smith, with us on Five Live Sport, current head coach of Charlotte FC. Well, you mentioned Emma Hayes there. Did you see that, the Brazil-USA game?

43:20Chris Sutton:It had about 112 red cards in it, didn't it? Did Brazil have eight red cards or something? Yeah, including staff, yeah. Fort Yang. Yes, Clueda Backers. A few elbows here and there. Yeah, let's not go into that. Some of the footage was questionable. He's allowed me to move on. Yeah. All right. We'll move on and talk about some of the other nations. We're going to talk about the European champions next. Spain, who are in the same group as Cap Verde and Saudi Arabia and Uruguay. and the former Spain right-back César Aspilacueta is part of our team for the whole of the tournament and joins us now.

44:01Chris Sutton:Welcome to the team, César. How are you? Hi, good evening. Good, and you? Yeah, very well. Very well, thank you. What are the concerns for Spain going into this? Are there any? Is it simply the fitness of Lamin-Yamal and that's it? Well, to be fair, they come as European champions, so confidence must be high in the camp. World Cup is different, especially this one. More teams, more games, three different countries to play. So it will be different. But yeah, regarding fitness, might be the one to be aware of. The key players, they didn't play, they don't have their rhythm of competition the last couple of weeks.

44:43But to be honest, they have a very strong squad.

44:46Chris Sutton:And given how long this tournament is, they can manage the fitness of Lamin Yomal early on, can't they? Yes, and they will. I guess in a tournament like this, a long one, they will start slowly, progressively, in terms of minutes. Because Lamin is a key player for the national team and they need him in the best shape possible to have more chances of winning the World Cup. What do you think the biggest challenges are for a player, given how big this tournament is. Will it be travel? Will it be the fact that different games are going to be taking place in very different conditions? I mean, Spain have two games in Atlanta, which is an indoor stadium, isn't it?

45:34Chris Sutton:In the Mercedes-Benz stadium there. I don't know if they have the roof open or not. But the Uruguay game is in Guadalajara. Whether it's indoor or outdoor, Guadalajara is very different to Atlanta. Yeah, we had a little taste of how it would look, the World Cup of national teams, when we were last summer with Atletico Madrid playing the Club World Cup. And we played two games in Los Angeles. We played one in Seattle and the weather was very different. We had to travel and we didn't go through, but already in three games we felt it's a challenging one. Yeah, definitely. And travelling, recovery time, more games, more teams.

46:19It's going to be a tricky one, yeah, for sure.

46:23Chris Sutton:What is Luis de la Fuente like? I mean, you have been in a Luis de la Fuente squad. So what kind of manager is he or coach is he for players? Well, I've been only once with him. but what I can see from the outside is someone who in terms of he was playing for the whole ranks of the JAL teams in Spain, he was very successful then when he got the senior squad he won the European Champions the Nations League once, they lost another final on penalties so he's delivering results for Spain and It's a manager who keeps more or less the system very balanced, 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 in terms of players. He trusts his players and the way they play and they will keep doing the same system with the same players and also have maybe more variability in terms of the striker, but otherwise they have very similar profiles in every position.

47:33Chris Sutton:Were you surprised when he got the job, given his pathway? No, because in Spain, it's quite usual to have the coaches that they come to the Jav teams to move up. When you see his success in the Jav teams, I was not surprised of the decision. Do you think, I mean, Spain won the Euros. Do you think this squad is better placed going into the World Cup than before they went into the Euros? Hard to say because we know how difficult it is to win again. I think only Spain did it in 2008 and 2012 with the Euros and they had the World Cup win in 2010 in between. So that was very, very hard to replicate.

48:22But if I see a team that can be able to replicate, it will be this Spanish national team. Also, the squad is bigger. Now they have 26 players. So to manage all this will be also a challenge. My biggest concern is the fitness of key players. If they start getting competition, they keep training with the team and they get the fitness up through the tournament. I see the team stronger towards the last stages of the World Cup.

48:59Chris Sutton:Is the expectation at home that they will win? I don't know if to win, but yes, to compete for it. Yes, definitely. Yeah. I suppose, given recent, the last 15, 20 years, the expectation is they always have to compete now. Every time I've been there, yeah, the expectation was always to win. When you come behind this crazy squad, they won the three trophies, they don't have any expectation rather than win every tournament. So, yeah, this summer is not any different. How much pressure did you feel then with that when you're following in those footsteps? Massive pressure because when you see the players, my first World Cup was in Brazil.

49:48And when they were coming from winning the two last Euros, the World Cup in South Africa, we just lost the Confederations Cup against Brazil in 2013. It was massive pressure. And our first game didn't... It started very well. We were 1-0 up against Netherlands. And we lost 5-1. And since then, we just... We couldn't get back on track. And we were out in the group stage, which was a big, big disappointment for the country.

50:20Chris Sutton:But it started well by going 1-0 up. Really well. I was on the pitch. I was enjoying. It was my first game at the World Cup. 1-0 up. everything was fine. I said, well, that's looking promising and then everything collapsed. That's a good one. Let me ask you about one of your other experiences, which is working with Thomas Tuchel. And I'm sure over the course of you working with us over the next few weeks, we'll talk a lot about Thomas Tuchel and his approach. What impressed you about working under him? There's a couple of things. To be fair, in terms of football, he arrived, if I don't remember, but it was like the day before of a game that we were playing Wolves at home and he made it very clear through the first session on the pitch in Cobham the way he wanted us to play and in the team meetings we had, especially the first ones we had, he made it very clear and the team understood very well what he wanted, so that was the first impression and since then I think we started building the way he He wanted to play at halftime, the changes he could make.

51:30So the team grew in four months. Incredible. I think it was hard to predict when the first meeting we had and the way he explained us how he wanted to play. And then as a person, it was someone very close to the players. It was also after COVID time. So the building was half empty and we enjoyed a lot of time together. was his captain and we shared a lot of thoughts and he was very close to myself and to the group of senior players. So we built a very strong relationship.

52:08Chris Sutton:He seems, in the couple of times that I've interviewed him or spoken to him, he's very honest and very open. Did you find that as a player for him? Yes, yes. My connection was straightforward with him, to be fair. I felt the confidence, I felt the power and I had some of my best games under him and I really enjoyed the style of play and I felt as someone on the pitch and also off the pitch that it was helping a lot the team to get the results that we wanted. You would expect, we were just talking then about players and different roles and where they might fit in and you would expect every player already probably knows what's expected of them, certainly through this group stage, where they might play, where they might feature, how many minutes they might get here, how many minutes they might get there, whether they might be a centre-half or a right-back.

53:06Chris Sutton:And I know that sounds obvious in some ways, but from what I hear, some managers don't give you that clarity. You would expect that squad to have that clarity, wouldn't you? It's very hard. Every player we want to play, and I think our expectation from a surface point of view, you want to play and you feel yourself that you are going to be in the lineup. But this is very important because when I get a couple of examples in World Cup final, Champions League final, some of the key players that can score the goal or assist are the ones that they didn't start the game. Even now we have a bigger squad, five changes.

53:45so as a player sometimes we need to keep this frustration of not starting because sometimes even in the knockout stages maybe the ones on the bench they played for longer than the ones who started because maybe at the 50 55 minutes you are out and the guy who comes in plays until the last penalty shootout so it's as a player I think it's very important to be humble and not to be frustrated when you are not starting, even if you want to play, of course.

54:21Chris Sutton:And the other thing with Thomas Tuchel as well is that on the one hand, I don't know if you've seen this stuff, but you've seen some of these team meetings where he's basically saying to them, this is where we want to get. And yet some of the press conferences recently he's just tried to take a little bit of the expectation off them. I think that's what Cesar's kind of alluding to in terms of that real clarity for the squad. And I'm presuming that's how it happened with the Champions League win, that there was a name to be there. But from an internal point of view, that stays within. And of course, we know when it gets to a World Cup stage, it's about controlling the media.

54:57And with his experience and all that he's won, it is about kind of dampening their expectations to allow the players to be free and to be able to produce on the pitch. And I think that's what you get with someone like Tuchel in terms of he's quite honest. But I think for me, the biggest thing that stands out is that players know what their roles are and the clarity is quite clear because he's continuously saying in the press conferences in terms of he's got 14 or 15 starters. So for the rest of the 11 players that potentially not in that group, you've had to have a conversation that their role might be a bit different to those that do start.

55:32and the influence, like Cesar said, in terms of you might have to come off the bench but also have a massive impact and being able to be ready for that impact is what England maybe need to be successful this tournament.

55:44Chris Sutton:Just going back to what you said about when he first came in at Cobham then and he instructed you and told you how he wanted you to play. Is his football and style of football and his instructions generally quite easy to pick up? It depends for whom. For you? I mean, personally, I had so many managers and with every manager, I had to adapt. I played in, maybe I would say back three on the right side was my, what I played most in my career, but it was not the same back three under Antonio Conte or Frank Lampard or Thomas Tuchel. You know, I played even with Luis Enrique. we were playing four at the back, but I was in the national team, like building up as a three on the right.

56:32So every manager is very different. But I have to say that not only the way he explained how he wanted to play, but also the feedback we got after the game or even at halftime was very useful to keep progressing and to keep improving.

56:47Chris Sutton:So does that mean England have a better manager than Spain then? I have to say that every country, they believe their manager is the best and every country, the expectation, the media. I think we can counter. We need more fingers than the 10 we have in our hands to think about more than 10 countries that we believe our country is going to win the World Cup. Cesar, over the course of the next few weeks, I'll explain to you in greater depth what it's like to work with Chris Sutton from time to time and how he tries to catch people out. If Spain aren't going to win this, Who else would you tip? It's hard.

57:28It's hard. There are so many countries that I believe they can make it. I think I would name the obvious names. And also I see, you know, that there's going to be one that might not be the best team who starts the tournament, who could be reaching the finals, because taking the examples like the one we had in Spain in 2010 when Spain lost against Switzerland. Everybody thought that was the end of the Spanish national team and they came to win. And then in Qatar, I was on the pitch. We won 7-0 against Costa Rica, the biggest win in the World Cup. And then last 16, we were flying back home after penalties against Morocco.

58:17So even Argentina, don't go too far. first game didn't go to plan and they ended up winning so it's going to be one to watch and I think we'll have more clarity towards the last eight of the tournament who can win it

58:38Chris Sutton:Chris who are you thinking? I've got four or five okay well go on then are you doing predictions during this World Cup? are you? no no I don't do it I'm really bad Go on then, Chris. Who are they? I've done my first round of predictions. I don't think I'll get any right. Right. Who are your four or five? I don't want to say there's too many teams, but there's so many teams. I mean, you can't know every team inside out. But no, I actually think France, I quite like their tactic of not preparing properly. So they'll probably come and win it. Argue lots and end up winning it, won't they? Well, you'd be not preparing properly by having their friendlies at Clairefontaine, not in North America.

59:22Chris Sutton:Yeah, no, exactly. Get out there and acclimatise. Do you know what you predicted for Jordan-Austria? Just off the top of your head. Yeah, an Austria win. Austria win. An Austria win, yeah. Everybody will beat Jordan. All right, OK. Who are you looking at? Well, the more I've looked, the more I've gotten a pickle, I think. I did say France as well, initially, when I was first asked that question. Oh, come on. Don't copy me, Rachel. Come on. They're the same reasons, too. For that reason, I'm going to say someone else. I've very recently looked at Portugal and I just think they've got a great team.

59:54They've got a great team. Ronaldo's too old. Yeah. Well, no, I'm not going to say yes and agree with that statement. I think he's... I love Ronaldo. I mean, what an amazing example.

1:00:04Chris Sutton:It'll be really interesting how they use him, won't it? Yes. And I think that potentially could be a challenge because he, like all the players, as César said, that players want to play. We know Ronaldo loves football so much and wants to be on the pitch, but I think they've got great options in the attack. You know, when you actually look at their attack in players, the depth they have to play across those front four positions are off the charts. Like Conce Sao, Bernardo Silva, Fernandes, Ronaldo, Ramos, Xau Felix, Leao, Neto, even someone like Gwedes. I really enjoyed him at Wolves. He scores brilliant goals.

1:00:42We're talking about having depth and bringing players off the bench. going forward, Portugal look like they are a force. I mean, if I say France, is Chris not going to be happy?

1:00:52Chris Sutton:He'll probably complain. Come on. If it's not France, I think Brazil. I'm going to throw that out there just in terms of already used to the climate, travelling, but also I think just in terms of the strength and death. But I think the reason I went for France is just in terms of their forward line, the likes of Mbappe and Lise scoring a hat-trick the other night. Just players that have got that little bit of an X factor and I think there's huge pressure on them. But yeah, I think for me, France or Brazil. Who do you think, Mark? I'm not allowed to say, Chris. No, you are. You can, surely you can say.

1:01:30Chris Sutton:You must, come on. I'd rather just wait. As Cesar said, it's important to wait till, say, the first round of group games are underway and you get a sense of how every team is... Yeah, but that's not a prediction then, is it? Just in case your team is going out early. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I've just got to take my time, see how everybody looks, and then we'll... Is that because you've not read your Bible that you've got next year? It's because I haven't gone through all the notes quite yet, Steph. Exactly. Cesar, what's your first game for us? Do you know? Spain against Saudi Arabia. Great. We will see you for that then.

1:02:03Chris Sutton:Thank you very much for joining us this evening. Cesar Aspilacueta, part of the BBC Sport team for this World Cup. I'm told one of your predictions in the group stages is France 3, Senegal 3 Yeah, well, yeah Senegal are quite good and yeah, they'll get off to a draw It's not how you start these tournaments, Mark I'm always consistent on that It's how you finish and the French mood will be right at the end Steph, Rachel, thank you That's it for the World Cup preview show You can get the Football Daily every morning from the USA Just search Football on BBC Sounds The 2023 Ballon d 'Or France footballer is Lionel Messi.

1:02:46The winner is Cristiano Ronaldo. This is the story of the greatest rivalry in the history of sport. A rivalry that split football into two fates for a generation. There could be no, oh, Messi and Ronaldo are both great players. There had to be one that was better. They 100 million percent pushed each other to the next level. You know, we were the lucky ones who got to see it. I'm Steve Crossman. This is Sporting Giants Messi v Ronaldo. Listen first on BBC Sounds.

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