“They won the last Euros. They qualified for the next World Cup. They are in a good moment.<\/p>\n
“If you see them, they have a typical Spanish play, pass to pass, and they control the games. They are really good, in my opinion. <\/p>\n
“Right now, they are probably the favourites to win the World Cup.”<\/p>\n
![\"England](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/england-football.jpg\")
England have been tipped as one of the teams to achieve World Cup glory<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
However, the former Spanish defender, who played in the 2018 World Cup, also listed England among four teams he believes have a good chance of competing for the trophy.<\/p>\n
When asked who could challenge Spain, Monreal told the People’s Channel: “I think probably France, England, also Brazil, Argentina.<\/p>\n
“It’s not going to be easy, you know, because there are always four or five top, top national teams. <\/p>\n
“All of them have really good chances to win it.”<\/p>\n
![\"\\u200bSpain\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/u200bspain.jpg\")
Spain is among the favourites for the 2026 World Cup<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
He added: “If you want to win the World Cup, you need to be the best and you need to beat any single national team.”<\/p>\n
England presents a strong case as potential champions. <\/p>\n
Their core group of players is approaching peak age, and recent tournament results indicate progress. <\/p>\n
The challenge for England will be maintaining consistency throughout the tournament and converting promising performances into decisive victories.<\/p>\n
![\"Thomas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/thomas-tuchel.jpg\")
England presents a strong case as potential champions<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
Other nations, including Argentina, Germany, Brazil, France and Portugal, are viewed as credible challengers.<\/p>\n
The group stage draw will commence at 5pm on Friday, with a new expanded 48-team format.<\/p>\n
Teams will be placed into four pots of 12, based on Fifa rankings and host-nation status.<\/p>\n
The three hosts, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, are included in Pot 1 alongside the nine highest-ranked teams.<\/p>\n
![\"World](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/world-cup-2026.jpg\")
The group stage draw will commence at 5pm on Friday<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
From these pots, 12 groups of four will be drawn.<\/p>\n
Fifa will maintain confederation balance by ensuring most groups do not feature two teams from the same region, with some flexibility given to Europe\u2019s larger contingent.<\/p>\n
This edition also introduces a “tennis-style\u201d bracket designed to keep top-ranked nations apart until the later rounds.<\/p>\n
That means favourites such as France, Argentina, Spain, and England are unlikely to meet before the semifinals or final, adding layers of intrigue to potential matchups later in the tournament.<\/p>\n
![\"Fifa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fifa-draw.jpg\")
Teams will be placed into four pots of 12, based on Fifa rankings and host-nation status<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
Of the 48 total spots, 42 have already been secured.<\/p>\n
The remaining six will be filled through playoffs in March 2026, though placeholders for those positions will already appear in Friday\u2019s draw, most likely in Pot 4.<\/p>\n
With the groups confirmed, Fifa is expected to publish the full match schedule, including venues and kick-off times, the following day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have been tipped as one of the teams to achieve World Cup glory as former Spain defender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,94,104,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-613280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-spain","12":"tag-sport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115665591462348027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}