The draw for the world cup has been made and it’s looking good for England. They’ve been drawn in what’s considered an easy group so hopefully it will be an easy route through to the knockout stages. England may have an easy group, but the 5 time world cup winners Brazil don’t have such an easy ride. Brazil are drawn in group G with Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea.

Ivory Coast, they have only qualified for the World Cup once before in 2006 so though they are relative new boys to the competition they aren’t to be underestimated. The team has a number of Premier Leagues stars, including Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Salomon Kalou and the brilliant Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. They are known as being a tough team to beat and Brazil won’t be underestimating them.

Portugal who only qualified through the plays offs so were un-seeded. However they are still considered one of the strongest teams in Europe and have a host of top class players including Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2008 World Player of the year and the most expensive player ever bought when Real Madrid paid £80million for him in the summer of 2009. The Portugal team still include players from the 2006 team which made it to the World Cup semi finals, with Brazilian Manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.

North Korea will be considered the easiest team to beat as they have less stars than the others, with pretty much their whole team plying their trade in Korea. It’s only the second time North Korea have qualified for the world cup with the first time being the world cup in England in 1966. They did cause an upset in the tournament by beating Italy 1-0.

Though Brazil have been given a tough draw it’s still a group they should easily qualify, being the number 1 seeded country in the world. This Brazil team may not have the flair that you expect from a Brazilian team but they still enough world class stars to rival any team. The player Brazil really will be relying on to produce the class is former world player of the year, Kaka. From his midfield position Kaka can boss the whole game and produces moments of genius every time he plays. He’s not the only star of the team though, adding some flair to the team is Robinho of Manchester City, Dani Alves, the attacking full back from Barcelona and Ronaldinho who on the top of his game is unbeatable. The difference with this Brazilian team is as well as the flamboyant players they have a core of solid reliable players and this has made the 2009 team the strongest Brazilian team defensively for some time.