Rory Smith breaks down all 32 teams in the 2018 World Cup. There can only be one champion, but stars — and the idea of what qualifies as a successful tournament — will arrive in many forms.

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Group A

Best World Cup Fourth place, as the Soviet Union (1966); as Russia, it has never advanced out of the group stage in three tries

How did they qualify? Automatically, as the host. Russia’s form over the last two years, though, has been patchy: the occasional creditable result, like a draw against Spain, but sapping setbacks, too, including a heavy defeat against Ivory Coast and a disappointing display in the Confederations Cup.

What can we expect? There is a genuine fear in Russia that, whether or not the World Cup as a whole is a success, on the field it might become only the second host nation — joining South Africa in 2010 — to be eliminated in the group stage.