World Cup-With the draws for football’s biggest showpiece event all done and dusted, all seems set for Germany to defend their crown come next summer. The World Cup be kicked off on Thursday, June 14, and as is customary, hosts Russia will take on Asian foes Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the tournament scheduled to hold at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, the same venue where the final will take place on July 15.
Before the final, the round of 16 matches get underway on June 30, with the quarter-finals on July 6 and 7 and the semi-finals on July 10 and 11.
Russia is a vast country with 11 time zones, so locations for world cup matches are not in short supply but all the venues for the World Cup have been slated in the west to avoid teams having to face too many travel issues.
There are 12 venues across 11 cities, with Ekaterinburg the furthest east and Kaliningrad the furthest west.
At the stadium in Ekaterinburg – the Ekaterinburg Arena –  one would get to see one of the world cup’s more unique features of all the venues as it has two temporary stands outside the original perimeter to ensure it meets the FIFA-sanctioned minimum of 35,000 spectators.
The biggest stadium will be the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and the other venues are the Kaliningrad Stadium, Volgograd Stadium, Fisht Stadium, Kazan Arena, Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Samara Stadium, Rostov-on-Don Stadium, Spartak Stadium, Saint Petersburg Stadium and Saransk Stadium.
Kick off time for the tournament will be a bit earlier than most fans are used to because of the Russian time zone. Following this matches will be be played mostly during the day for those resident in England.
The opening match of the tournament will be played at 6pm Moscow time (4pm UK time) on Thursday, June 14 while group stage matches will be played throughout the day, with some starting at 3pm Moscow time (1pm UK time) and others at 6pm and 9pm Moscow time (4pm and 7pmUK time).
The final will again be played at 6pm Moscow time.
Defending champions Germany who defeated Argentina in the last edition to lift the trophy have been tipped as top favourites to defend their crown. Booker have rated them as joint-favourites with South American giants and record winners- Brazil-at 5/1. It can be recalled that the Germans had famously trounced the Samba boys by a whooping 7 goals to 1 at Belo Horizonte in the 2014 World Cup at Brazil.
France, with perhaps their most talented squad since their World Cup triumph in France have been rated as third-favourites at 11/2, followed by South Africa 2010 World Cup winners Spain (7/1) and last edition’s finalists Argentina (8/1). England are rated at 16/1 outsiders, with Group G rivals Belgium given odds of 12/1.
The least fancied sides are Panama, who England will face in their second Group G game, and Saudi Arabia at 1000/1.