Germany's experimental squad selection means Spain have the edge in Group E

Spain and Germany should finish as the top two in Group E and I would definitely pick Spain to get further in the tournament.

Everybody is looking forward to their meeting on matchday two because the recent history between the pair has been interesting.

Their last meeting ended in a 6-0 win for Spain in the Nations League in November 2020. That result lives on in German heads – albeit not quite as much as Germany 7 Brazil 1 sticks in the minds of Brazilian football fans! – even though Germany have made progress under Hansi Flick.

Spain are wonderfully unpredictable, and still too reliant on striker Alvaro Morata, but they look the more complete of the two sides and are further forward in terms of their identity.

Spain have a youthful team but they know who and what they are and players such as Gavi and Pedri are reasonably experienced considering their ages.

Germany have not been great in 2022 and there are some experimental elements to their squad selection. They've got two uncapped forwards in Niclas Fullkrug and Youssoufa Moukoko and I don't think they've picked their best defenders.

A lot of people in Germany thought Mats Hummels should have made the squad. Yes, he may be past his best but he's still good enough and selecting 20-year-old Armel Bella-Kotchap, however promising he might be, instead of Hummels seems counter-intuitive.

Looking through the squads, there is a case to be made that Spain and Croatia have the strongest midfields in the tournament, certainly after France's unit was gutted by injuries to Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante.

I'm not saying Croatia will reach the final again but they can win Group F ahead of Belgium because their midfield is just so good.

You could argue that Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic are the best midfielders at their clubs – Real Madrid, Chelsea and Inter – and there are plenty of other positives for Croatia.

They are hugely experienced, with decent depth and a bit more youth at the back thanks to Josko Gvardiol, who is going to be one of the best defenders in Europe within the next five or six years.

Rennes midfielder Lovro Majer is another player who could go a really long way in the game and Croatia have goals from sources you might not expect.

Andrej Kramaric is the main striker but Mario Pasalic and Ante Budimir can also chip in and Dinamo Zagreb's Mislav Orsic has scored European goals against Tottenham and Chelsea in the past two seasons.

Add to that the stability of having coach Zlatko Dalic, who led them to the 2018 final, and Croatia look capable of upsetting a Belgium team who appear to be fettered to the past.

It was revealing that Eden Hazard was almost referring to himself in the past tense at a recent press conference, saying that on recent form Brighton's Leandro Trossard deserves to be picked ahead of him.

Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois are world-class performers but you can't expect much from Hazard or Romelu Lukaku given their form and fitness problems.

Every World Cup players go when they probably shouldn't because it's only every four years and it's so hard to tell a big-name player that it's over. They all hope they're Roberto Baggio in 1994 - that they'll turn up, hope for the best and it'll be alright on the night - but there's only one Roberto Baggio!

One advantage of a winter World Cup should be that players have not got 60 games in their legs but it's hard for those, such as Lukaku and Hazard, who have had slow starts to their club campaigns.

Morocco, the biggest threats to Croatia and Belgium in Group F, have a talented team but I'd be concerned about how match-ready some of their key players are.

Hakim Ziyech and Noussai Mazraoui haven't played much at Chelsea and Bayern Munich, the Sevilla players have had a poor season, and Nayef Aguerd has only just come back from injury at West Ham, so that may help Belgium avoid a group-stage exit.

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