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Group E teams
- Spain
- Germany
- Costa Rica
- Japan
Group E fixtures
All times GMT
- Germany vs Japan: 1pm, Wed 23 Nov (Khalifa International)
- Spain vs Costa Rica: 4pm, Wed 23 Nov (Al Thumama)
- Japan vs Costa Rica: 10am, Sun 27 Nov (Ahmad bin Ali)
- Spain vs Germany: 7pm, Sun 27 Nov (Al Bayt)
- Japan vs Spain: 7pm, Thurs 1 Dec (Khalifa International)
- Costa Rica vs Germany: 7pm, Thurs 1 Dec (Al Bayt)
Spain
How they qualified
By doing just enough, basically. There’s little to be gleaned from empathic wins against minnows, but Spain scoring only five times in three away games against Greece, Georgia and Kosovo did give their World Cup qualifying campaign a perfunctory edge. They also lost in Sweden and drew at home to Greece, relying on surprise Swedish defeats to Georgia and Greece to hand them top spot and allow them to avoid the play-offs.
Biggest strength
The midfield three is one of, if not the best in the tournament. Rodri sits in front of the defence, winning possession and recycling possession quickly. Either side of him, Pedri and Gavi, Barcelona’s two superstar teenagers, may well both start as box-to-box midfielders tasked with carrying the ball forward and allowing Dani Olmo and Marco Asensio to stay wide. And we haven’t even mentioned Koke, Sergio Busquets, Carlos Soler or Marcos Llorente yet, all of whom will push for minutes.
Spain also possess a clearer identity than most teams in Qatar. They will use the energy of those two box-to-box midfielders to try and create a barrier around their opponents, pressing high up the pitch to try and win back possession with Rodri as the safety blanket behind them. With the ball, the possession-based style largely remains. Luis Enrique will aim to instill patience as Spain aim to test concentration and create overlaps.
Greatest weakness
Centre-forward was probably Spain’s weakest position before they were left sweating on the fitness of Alvaro Morata. Morata is Enrique’s likeliest starting striker, but suffered a “soft tissue oedema” on his ankle while playing for Atletico Madrid against Cadiz. Morata may be maligned at club level but he has scored 27 goals for Spain at a rate better than a goal every other game. The only other player in their squad with more than 10 international goals is Ferran Torres, who has not been a regular for Barcelona this season and prefers to play out wide.
The form is also a concern. Spain topped their recent Nations League group but only won half of their games. They won only one of their six games at Euro 2020 inside 90 minutes and there must be some suspicion that this tournament probably comes a little early for Gavi and Pedri to dominate. The group stage draw is also interesting, because it raises the argument that you would rather finish second and avoid Brazil and Argentina’s side of the competition.
Star player
Good question, because this is emphatically a team more than a group of individuals. But Spain’s hopes of going deep into the tournament probably rely upon Pedri’s ability to dictate the tempo of play when they have the ball. He was named in the Euro 2020 Team of the Tournament and will need to replicate that level. Spain’s most likely route (they are favourite to win the group) would see them potentially face Germany, Brazil and Argentina just to reach the final. It’s pretty daunting.
Manager
Enrique might just rank as one of elite European football’s most underappreciated coaches, having won every trophy at least once at Barcelona and then taken Spain forward from their 2013-2018 fallow period despite the retirement of all of the country’s golden generation. There is a danger that he becomes Spain’s nearly manager, having led them to a European Championship semi-final and Nations League final, and his possession-based approach isn’t popular with everyone. But Spain do not have the same high-level core as they did in the glory years.
Prediction
The obvious route here is great optimism as they beat Germany and top the group, squeezing past Croatia in the last 16 and then losing to Brazil. Quarter-final exit.
Costa Rica
How they qualified
As well as could be expected, really. With Canada emerging as a force again in Concacaf and the region only having three automatic places, Costa Rica were always going to struggle to make that top three ahead of the heavyweights. Even finishing fourth seemed highly unlikely with five games remaining, but Costa Rica drew with Mexico and beat Jamaica, Canada and the USA to finish behind the Americans on goal difference. A 1-0 victory over New Zealand in the inter-continental play-off got them to Qatar.
Biggest strength
Costa Rica’s lack of strength in depth means that their old guard remains for one more tournament and they certainly have bags of experience in specific areas. Keylor Navas, Celso Borges, Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell are all aged 30 or over and share 523 international caps between them. Four of the eight defenders named in the squad are also 30 or older and all of those have at least 60 caps. They know what they’re doing.
To be frank, the players you have heard of are Costa Rica’s best hope of pulling off a shock. And we must remember that they have done exactly that before. In the 2014 World Cup, Costa Rica were similarly unfancied and were unbeaten in topping a group containing England, Italy and Uruguay before eventually losing on penalties to Netherlands in the quarter-finals. They conceded two goals in five games and will look to stick to those defensive principles again.
Greatest weakness
Can the senior players really still perform at their peak? Navas is still at an elite club, but Ruiz, Bryan Oviedo, Borges and Campbell are all now playing their football in Concacaf countries. Only two of the outfielders in this squad are playing club football in Europe: 18-year-old Jewison Bennette of Sunderland and 18-year-old Brandon Aguilera, loaned by Nottingham Forest back to Guanacasteca following his signing.
That’s the real problem here: the lack of players at peak age in a squad of extremes. Eleven of the 26-man squad are aged 30 or above and 10 are aged 24 and under and have 10 caps or fewer. The players aged between 24 and 29 who have a reasonable amount of international experience: Rónald Matarrita, Keysher Fuller, Juan Pablo Vargas, Gerson Torres. Add in a terrible group-stage draw and it’s hard to predict a repeat of 2014.
Star player
Navas is the star and he will need to be at his absolute best to give Costa Rica any chance at all of qualifying. Even he has question marks hanging over his head, having not played a league game for Paris Saint-Germain this season and now firmly the backup to Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Navas is the perfect personification of this Costa Rica squad. He was at Levante during the 2014 World Cup, where he was named Man of the Match against England to secure top spot in the group, Man of the Match again against Greece in the last-16 and then brilliant again against the Dutch as Costa Rica were finally eliminated. Bennett, now a team-mate of Navas for his country, turned 10 years old during that World Cup.
Manager
Luis Fernando Suarez does at least have his own experience of pulling off a World Cup shock, when Ecuador came to Germany in 2006 and reached the last-16 before being eliminated 1-0 by England. Having lost his job in 2007, Suarez bounced around Latin American club football before being appointed by Costa Rica before their World Cup qualifying campaign. After taking six points from their first seven qualifiers, the new manager was immediately under significant pressure. Then came the majestic run that led Costa Rica to Qatar. Now everything else is a bonus.
Prediction
Forgive me writing off Costa Rica, as we all probably did in 2014, but this group is just too tough. Group-stage exit.
Germany
How they qualified
The home defeat against North Macedonia was comical, but Germany won all nine of their other qualifiers in a very favourable group that saw North Macedonia as the second seeds when it could have been Portugal or Italy. Hansi Flick, who replaced Joachim Low after the European Championship, won all of his games by an aggregate scoreline of 31-2 and tried to bring through younger players to give much-needed freshness to a squad that looked a little stale at the Euros.
Biggest strength
There is now a pretty intoxicating blend of youth and experience in this squad, but the central midfield combination of Ilkay Gundogan and Joshua Kimmich, who allow three attacking midfielders in front of them to stay high up the pitch, is the key. The freshness is provided by centre-back Nico Schlotterbeck (22), David Raum (24), Jamal Musiala (19) and two forwards – Karim Adeyemi and Youssoufa Moukoko – who may be game-changing options off the bench.
The key may well be getting the best out of Serge Gnabry, whose career has gone stratospheric since leaving the Premier League. Gnabry has 20 goals in just 36 internationals and that prolificacy will be even more key given the absence of Timo Werner to injury. The experience of Gundogan and Thomas Muller are going to be vital if Germany are to go deep into this tournament – they must find a way to roam and pick up pockets of space and allow what will now be a fluid attacking unit to make hay.
Greatest weakness
Werner may have been ridiculed for his missed chances at Chelsea, but his loss is significant to Germany. Without the focal point striker, Flick must choose whether to play Muller in an advanced role or, more likely, Kai Havertz flanked by Gnabry and Leroy Sane with those three regularly swapping positions.
The overhaul of Germany’s defence was required, but it does leave them without much major tournament experience that could prove crucial in later rounds. At Euro 2020, the five oldest defenders in Germany’s squad were Mats Hummels, Marcel Halstenberg, Christian Gunter, Antonio Rudiger and Emre Can. Rudiger is a certainty to start, but Flick may call upon younger players as replacements for much of that knowhow: Schlotterbeck, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Thilo Kehrer and Raum.
Star player
Kimmich is not a star by personality, but he may well be the one player who Flick can use to make this Germany team less predictable. Kimmich has demonstrated his ability at club and international level to play in a variety of roles. Not only does he allow Flick to change shape mid-game to adjust to his opponent’s shape or the game state, he is also the one responsible for setting the tempo by providing quick passes either through midfield or out to one of the wide forwards to run onto. If he shines in Qatar, Germany can reach the semi-finals at least.
Manager
Flick was the only natural candidate to take over from Joachim Low’s dynastical tenure, and he is well-placed to replicate it. Not only was he assistant for the national team for eight years, he then proved himself very capable of making the same step up when moving from Bayern assistant to head coach before winning two domestic titles, two domestic cups, the Champions League, Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup. in the space of 19 months. He struggled slightly during the recent Nations League campaign, but Flick may well excel in Qatar.
Prediction
They finish second in the group but that gives them an easier path through before losing to France in the semi-finals. Semi-final exit.
Japan
How they qualified
Japan had a ludicrously easy first group in qualifying, scoring 46 goals in eight matches and conceding twice. But there were some alarm after they finished second behind Saudi Arabia in the second stage, particularly given that they lost to Oman at home, drew at home to Vietnam and lost in Australia. The lack of goals – just 12 in those ten second round matches – was the problem; Japan failed to score more than twice in any game. After the feast of the first group stage, goalscoring famine.
Biggest strength
The most obvious plus point of this squad is that coach Hajime Moriyasu has been able to call upon groups of players from several European countries. The rise in Bundesliga scouting in Asia means that almost a third of this squad is based in Germany, while three more play their football in France, three play in England (although Yuta Nakayama has had to withdraw through injury) and two play in Spain.
Moreover, plenty of those are more than fringe players at club level. Kaoru Mitoma is impressing at Brighton, Takehiro Tomiyasu is a cult hero at Arsenal, Hidemasa Morita is a regular at Sporting, Daichi Kamada started all six group games for Frankfurt in the Champions League and Takefusa Kubo has helped Real Sociedad to sixth in La Liga. This is probably the deepest squad that Japan have ever taken to a World Cup.
Greatest weakness
Goalscoring is clearly a problem. Not only did Japan only score 12 goals in those 10 second round qualifiers, they have also drawn 0-0 with Ecuador and China and lost 3-0 to Tunisia in 2022, albeit never with their best squad available. Japan will look to play in fluid, quick attacking moves but to an extent that’s a euphemism for their midfielders needing to score goals. The three strikers in the squad share eight international goals between them.
But the great shame is the draw for the tournament. I have every faith that this Japan squad has what it takes to make a quarter-final and they might well be wonderful to watch in the process. But probably having to beat one of Spain and Germany to qualify (or at least remaining unbeaten against both) is a ridiculous ask. Japan will be in Qatar for a good time, not a long time.
Star player
This is a squad built around a team ethic and unity rather than individuals, but Kamada is probably the best player (although Mitoma could enjoy a breakout group stage). He is Frankfurt’s top goalscorer in both the Bundesliga and Champions League this season and was also their top scorer en route to winning the Europa League in 2021-22. It seems likely that Japan will use him as the most advanced forward but with licence to drift wide into space. He is the key to knocking out one of the big guns.
Manager
Moriyasu was assistant head coach at the 2018 World Cup but was appointed as successor to Akira Nishino after he stepped down following Japan’s exit. It hasn’t exactly been plain sailing, given the sticky second qualifying group stage followed a 3-1 defeat to Qatar in the Asian Cup final in 2019 that marked Japan’s first defeat in a continental final. That said, Moriyasu has brought through a number of young players (Kubo, Mitoma, Ueda, Ito) and will probably keep his job if Japan finish third behind Spain and Germany. Which is all you can really ask of him.
Prediction
I really like this squad and can’t wait to watch them in Qatar, but the draw is just too tough. Group-stage exit
