England Legend Gary Linekar Gives His View On How The 2014 World Cup Will Pan Out

The 2014 World Cup starts tomorrow, and everybody is going crazy trying to work out what teams will advance from the group stage. Stuck with who to pick? Who better to help you than England legend Gary Linekar. Here's his view on who will advance.

Group A- Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon

Group A should be an entertaining group, but it's hard to look past Brazil dominating it from start to finish. Gary agrees, as he explained "Brazil will dominate, but who will go through with them? It will go down to the last match between Croatia and Mexico, but I'm backing Croatia."

Group B- Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia

This is one of the easier groups to predict. Gary has gone for the same view as most others, saying "Spain will win the group and I'll back Van Gaal to get the Netherlands through."

Group C- Columbia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan

This group has no real hard-hitter, but Gary seems confident about who will progress. He explained "Yaya Toure might pull it out of the bag for the Ivory Coast and they will join Colombia in the second round."

Group D- Uruguay, England, Italy, Costa Rica

One of the tougher groups, but Gary has predicted the same as most others, with England winning the group ahead of Italy. Gary explained "I'm confident that England will go through and I'll go with Italy to join them."

Group E- Switzerland, France, Honduras, Ecuador

This is an easier group to predict with, as Gary explained "You can't fancy Honduras as the other qualifier, while Ecuador do well when they play at altitude at home, but they won't have that advantage in Brazil. So I'm going to go for Switzerland, who are organised and have one or two good players coming through."

Group F- Argentina, Bosnia, Nigeria, Iran

Gary believes Lionel Messi's Argentina will progress. He continued "you can't give much hope for Iran. I think it'll be Argentina to win the group and Nigeria to go through too."

Group G- Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA

Does Gary think the USA can win the World Cup? He explains that their time is not now, saying "You can make a case for the USA - Jurgen Klinsmann is a wily coach and they've recently had some good results in internationals. But I'm going to go for Germany to win the group and for Portugal to finish second."

Group H- Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea

Many people are predicting the Belgians to rock the 2014 World Cup, and Gary is no different, saying "I'm saying Belgium to win the group, with Russia second."