With the World Cup very quickly approaching this week is going to be filled with a blog post every day which will be our predictions of how we believe each group will finish before we head into the round of 16. There will be two groups per day and we will break down why we think the groups will end this way then once the group stage is over we will be sure to do a post seeing if our predictions were way off or if we actually correct with a few teams placements. 

This world cup has the potential has too be one of the best and most competitive yet and when you look at some of the groups it is actually quite hard to try predict where each team will finish as there aren't really any clear cut leaders these days, each team is capable of pulling off a surprise if they play to the best of their abilities. With both group A & B housing a host nation we are bound to see a brilliant atmosphere at these games which could be crucial for those teams progressing further into the competition or it could give them a little bit of stage fright if it is something they aren't quite used to such an atmosphere behind them. So here is how we think group A & B are going to look by the end of the group stage...

Group A 

Norway 

New Zealand

Switzerland

Philippines

Hosts New Zealand have been drawn into a pretty interesting group which if they play as well as they are capable of could actually pull of some surprise results and progress further through the competition. This group could honestly go to anyone as however, we believe the Philippines might struggle in this one and finish at the bottom of the group but you never know they might surprise everyone. Norway didn't have the best Euro's campaign last summer so they will be out to prove to everyone they can bounce back and we just can't help but think they will end up topping the group. As for the group runners up it was a tough pick however, we think that being on home soil might just add extra motivation to their campaign and we think that might just give them the push to finish the group in second place. It was a hard shout decided those as top two those as Switzerland are a team who could really challenge them and pull off some great results, there is a good chance they could end up progressing but we just can't see past Norway and New Zealand heading to the round of 16.

Group B

Canada

Australia

Republic of Ireland

Nigeria

Group B is one of the group we are most looking forward to watching if we are honest as it has a lot of potential to provide some nail biting games for us fans. There only seems to be Australia in this group who have no media noise around them due to other issues, poor Ireland's first time at the world cup is being overshadowed by old allegations against their manager and Nigeria are having their own management issues, where as Canada is still having issues with its football federation and they also have some big names missing due to injury. This group could be one of the closest we see but we can't help but think that Canada's experience is going to help them win their group and show the federation just what they are capable of, Canada are a team that have progressed really well in recent years and we think this might be their year to really show the world what they are capable of. As for joint hosts Australia, they could really push for that top spot in the group as we have seen a massive improvement in recent years and they will have a point to prove being on home soil however, we just can't see them having enough to get past Canada to reach that top spot, never say never though anything could happen in these group stages. With this being the Republic of Ireland's first world cup we don't really know what to expect from them on the big stage and to be honest they haven't been drawn in the best group in terms of strength of opposition but then again there could have been tougher groups to be in, if the team settles into the atmosphere there is a chance they can finish 3rd as we predict but only time will tell. Nigeria are having issues and at the time of writing this post there is a chance that they might not even have their manager for the first game, with all the disruptions they are having off the field we just can't help but believe that this is going to mean they struggle on the pitch too, we have seen in the past just how much potential this squad has but with everything going on we just can't help but feel they are going to struggle in the group stages and end up bottom of the group.

So there you go those are our predictions for group A & B at this summers world cup, are these going to represent the groups at the end of the stage or are we going to see some totally different tables? It is going to be interesting to see how these two groups play out and we are really looking forward to sitting and watching as many of the games from these teams as possible as anything can happen.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow to see how we think groups C & D are going to look at the end of the group stage...