🇨🇿 Czech Republic vs 🇲🇽 Mexico

Czech Republic are quietly one of the more consistent European sides. They reached the Euro 2020 quarter-finals with an organised, physical team and qualify regularly for major tournaments without getting much credit for it.

Patrik Schick scored one of the goals of Euro 2020 — a 50-yard lob from the halfway line after he spotted the Scottish goalkeeper was off his line. Most people haven't seen it. Look it up before the tournament starts and then mention it casually.

They're in Group A with Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. Progressing is realistic but not guaranteed. Czech Republic's game management usually makes them hard to beat even when they're not the better team — that's a useful quality at a World Cup.

Czech football produces technically disciplined, physically strong players. The domestic league provides a solid base that perhaps doesn't get the credit it deserves in Western European football circles.

The squad has a good generational blend — experienced players alongside a younger cohort developed during a period of genuine investment in Czech youth football. They're well-coached and tactically flexible, which matters in knockout football.

Mexico are one of three host nations and play the tournament's opening match on June 11 at the Estadio Azteca — the same stadium where Maradona's Hand of God goal happened in 1986. They're not short of history at this venue.

Here is a fact so consistent it has become almost a national joke: Mexico have been knocked out in the round of 16 at seven consecutive World Cups. Seven. On home soil, the pressure to finally break that streak is absolutely enormous.

The classic Golden Generation of Mexican players from the 2010s is largely gone now. The squad is younger and less experienced, which is either a fresh start or a problem depending on how the opening matches go.

The atmosphere at Mexican home games is genuinely unlike almost anything else in football. The crowd will be deafening. This is a real advantage in the early stages, when the novelty hasn't worn off and the stadium is still buzzing.

They're in Group A with South Africa, South Korea and Czech Republic. It's winnable but not a certainty. Failing to advance as a host nation would be an embarrassment of historic proportions — which is exactly the kind of thing Mexico sometimes do anyway.