World Cup 2018: FIFA Rankings for All Teams Heading into Tournament

There are two clear favourites heading into the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, which begins on Thursday.

Defending champions Germany are, for many, the team to beat, while Brazil are widely considered the side most likely to stop Die Mannschaft.

Therefore, it is little surprise that Germany are ranked No. 1 in the world by FIFA and Brazil No. 2.

Below those two sides, though, the picture becomes a little less clear.

Belgium are ranked No. 3 in the world and Portugal No. 4, but Spain, France and Argentina are all better fancied to win the tournament according to the bookies, per OddsShark.com.

Perhaps the starkest false position in FIFA's rankings is Group E's Switzerland, who head into the tournament ranked sixth in the world.

Thursday's opening fixture is being played between the two lowest-ranked sides in the tournament: Saudi Arabia and hosts Russia.

Here are the full rankings for each team at the FIFA World Cup (sum of rankings in parentheses):

Group A (196)

• Russia (70)
• Uruguay (14)
• Egypt (45)
• Saudi Arabia (67)

Group B (92)

• Portugal (4)
• Spain (10)
• Iran (37)
• Morocco (41)

Group C (66)

• France (7)
• Peru (11)
• Denmark (12)
• Australia (36)

        

Group D (95)

• Argentina (5)
• Croatia (20)
• Iceland (22)
• Nigeria (48)

       

Group E (65)

• Brazil (2)
• Switzerland (6)
• Costa Rica (23)
• Serbia (34)

      

Group F (97)

• Germany (1)
• Mexico (15)
• Sweden (24)
• South Korea (57)

         

Group G (91)

• Belgium (3)
• England (12)
• Tunisia (21)
• Panama (55)

      

Group H (112)

• Poland (8)
• Colombia (16)
• Senegal (27)
• Japan (61)

Using a fairly rudimentary average world ranking of teams to determine the difficulty of a group, Group A is the easiest by some distance.

Group E, meanwhile, is the toughest, closely followed by Group C.

The upshot is that hosts Russia theoretically have a better chance of advancing to the knockout stages than they would in any other group.

Their opening match is against their weakest opposition, meaning Russia will have to hit the ground running and earn all three points on Thursday.

Anything other than a win against Saudi Arabia, and Russia will face a mammoth task to pick up enough points against a Mohamed Salah-led Egypt and an excellent Uruguay side to reach the last 16.

At the tougher end of the spectrum, Brazil should not necessarily struggle to top Group E.

As noted above, the Swiss are a poor sixth, while Costa Rica and Serbia are more than beatable for the Selecao.

What it may mean, though, is that Brazil come through the group stage having worked harder than some of the other top sides, which could play to their advantage.

Group C is less predictable. France's squad is oozing with quality, but Les Bleus have never been the most consistent side. Manager Didier Deschamps has been guilty of questionable decision-making in the past, too.

Peru, Denmark and Australia could all cause France some problems, and if they fail to find their stride quickly, the French could struggle in their group.