Partners:

Spain

Ukraine

Tunisia

Saudi Arabia

Rank: 5

Rank: 40

Rank: 28

Rank: 33

Overview
Spain are faced with a difficult task after the FIFA World Cup™ Final Draw in Leipzig grouped them with Ukraine, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. The seeded nation have potential difficulties against all three opponents with Ukraine, appearing at the finals for the first time, among the most impressive European qualifiers. Tunisia are the reigning African champions while Saudi Arabia beat Korea Republic (semi-finalists at the 2002 FIFA World Cup) home and away to win their Asian qualifying group.

Analysis
Logic suggests that Spain and Ukraine will dominate but it is an intriguing group in which all four teams can be expected to compete strongly. Tunisia are returning to Germany where they gave a good account of themselves at the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, running Argentina close in a 2-1 defeat before defeating Australia 2-0.

If he recovers from injury in time, Ukraine will keep a close eye on Spain striker Raul. When the teams met in qualifying for the 2004 UEFA European Championship, the Real Madrid man scored three goals over the sides’ two matches. Ukraine have improved since then, becoming the first side from Europe to qualify for Germany and winning a group that included Turkey, Greece and Denmark.

Coach Roger Lemerre became the first coach to win continental titles in both Europe and Africa when he led Tunisia to their CAF African Cup of Nations success in 2004. They defeated Morocco in the final and edged out the same opponents to win a place in the FIFA World Cup finals for the third successive time. Saudi Arabia can go one better than that and in their fourth finals will be hoping to at least match their record in 1994 when they advanced to the second round before losing to Sweden.

Source: Yahoo! Official World Cup