Group F :
Brazil
Carlos Alberto Parreira (BRA coach)
Virtually it seems to be an easy group but practically it isn't. This is a group whose main qualities are physical strength and tactical obedience. Croatia are a team who mix strength and quality. Australia play with a 4-4-2 formation, while Japan have speed. I have no doubt the most difficult group is Argentina, after that England comes against Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Sweden.
Croatia
Zlatko Kranjcar (CRO coach)
I'm not unhappy with the group. First of all, I must say that Brazil, as holders, are favourites not only in our group but for the World Cup overall. We played them not that long ago in Split and showed how good we are by earning a draw against the current world champions. I'm also certain that we will be worthy opponents for Brazil in the World Cup, thanks to the quality of our play, our motivation and our individual skills, which we showed in the qualifiers. We are hoping for a positive result, which means we want to avoid defeat. But even if we do lose, we will still have two games left against Australia and Japan to progress further. And I think that we are better than those two teams. We will be playing a tournament in Hong Kong at the end of January and also a friendly against Austria. In May, we will start to prepare for the World Cup, and that will include a game against Romania and possibly Portugal. I will obviously be travelling around a great deal to watch the individual squad members and evaluate how well they are playing. Our greatest strength is our team work. We have a solid team, which can play well tactically and can also look for a result. We can be optimistic about the World Cup.
Australia
Guus Hiddink (AUS coach)
Brazil are definitely favourites, there's no getting round that fact. It's tough finding the right tactics against them, as they have unbelievable individual class, and they can wrap up a match at any moment. But I reckon the other teams in the group are all about the same level. I believe nothing will be finally decided until the last group matches. But we're obviously not going there believing we're destined to lose. We're only just in the top 50 in the world ranking, but we're always capable of springing a surprise, and we're determined. Naturally, we're realists as well. But there's no point coming over all shy and retiring at the World Cup. We proved we're capable of strong performances in the play-offs. Japan have rebuilt their team a little since the 2002 World Cup. You're always impressed by Croatian teams and their technical ability. They play with a lot of passion, so it's always difficult against them. We'll play a few friendlies before the World Cup, but we still have to finalise our plans. I'm happy with Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart and Munich as our venues. It's good to play in the south, it's a nice area.
Japan
Zico (JPN coach)
I think it's better to face Brazil in this stage of the tournament than in the knock-out stages. I think that whoever wants to win the World Cup has to be ready for everything. Japan will be prepared to face any team. During the draw, the only thing I didn't want was to be placed in Argentina's group which is an extremely hard section. But now I am going to think about Australia. It is important to start well. Brazil is the last match. I won't think about that right now.
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