Former England striker Michael Owen has named his favourite and dark horse to win the World Cup as the action gets underway in North America.
After a long and at times controversial build-up, the World Cup begins on Thursday as co-hosts Mexico take on South Africa in Mexico City.
Four years on from their thrilling victory in Qatar, Argentina and Lionel Messi return as defending champions, but the South Americans face a tall order if they are to become just the third nation to win back-to-back tournaments.
Spain are the bookies’ favourites to triumph this summer as Luis de la Fuente’s side look to add to the European Championship they won two years ago.
All the World Cup action
Get everything you need to know about the World Cup – England updates, the games to watch and stories you missed – in five minutes, at 1pm, every day. Sign up here.
But Owen, who played in three World Cups during his illustrious career, has instead tipped France to triumph this summer, insisting Les Bleus are ‘miles better’ than the rest of the competition.
‘I think France individually are the best team,’ Owen told Metro. ‘When you look at their players, they’re miles better than anybody else in terms of individuals.
‘If they play as a team and they’re the best team and probably the likeliest winners.’
Elsewhere, Owen believes that Germany could be a side to watch out for despite their dismal recent World Cup record, while the 46-year-old was not confident when pressed on England’s hopes under Thomas Tuchel.
‘I think England will be a quarter-final or a semi-final at best would be my guess, but I have a sneaky feeling that Germany could do well,’ he added.
‘I think they could do well. So France would be my pick, England to get to the quarters or semis and Germany to be the dark horses.’
‘Tuchel must think outside the box with his team selection’
England wrapped up their World Cup preparations with a routine 3-0 friendly win against Costa Rica on Wednesday.
The Three Lions get their tournament underway against Croatia next week, with question marks still lingering over Tuchel’s team selection.
Key decisions will have to be made on the left wing and in the No10 position, but Owen urged England’s head coach to think outside the box and even consider starting some of his first-choice players on the bench.
Speaking via England World Cup odds, he added: ‘If I were Thomas Tuchel, I would be literally changing the hell out of those positions constantly and I don’t care if somebody scores a hat-trick in the first game; they still get substituted at half-time and you put on the next three.
‘We’re so strong in those positions and what’s going to win this tournament is freshness, and what’s going to kill us is the heat, tiredness, fatigue so I don’t care who starts there.
‘In fact I would go the other way round and if Thomas Tuchel has got his idea on who are the best three players to play in behind Harry Kane then I would put them all on the bench and bring them on in the second half because that’s even more important in the first half if you do what I think we should do and just change the hell out of them all the time.
‘I’d be giving them no more than 45 minutes every game because if you’re going to play six players in those positions across the game then I prefer the best ones to be playing at the end when the opponents are fatigued.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.