World Cup 2014 - dark horses expectations

The World Cup in Brazil is just around the corner and surely most of the football fans have already chosen their favorite. Besides, who will be the champion, however, it is also interesting, who will be the dark horse of the World Cup 2014. If we look at the history of the World Cup, we will notice that in almost every edition there is a surprising team among the best 4. We of forebet.com present our assumptions about which squad can cope with the favorites for a place in the semifinals of the tournament.

1. Chile

Looking at the FIFA rankings of the national teams, we are impressed by the team of Chile, as they occupy the 14th position. Chile caught the attention after defeating England (0-2) on Wembley in a friendly match. Chile are highlt effective in attack, as they have great strikers in the face of Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas. Backed up by Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal, Chile striking force seems really impressive.

In the qualification group, only Argentina scores more goals than the Chileans. After a good performance not only in attack, Chile managed to qualify third in theri qualification group, finishing only 4 points behind the leader Argentina. "La Roja" left behind in the standings teams like Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay.

Chile are in one of the toughest groups of the tournament with the finalists of the previous World Cup - Spain and Netherlands. The expectations for these two teams, however, are very high, while the players of Chile definitely do not have such a pressure on their shoulders. Undoubtedly, if Spain or Netherlands underestimate Chile, this can cost them an early drop out of the tournament.

Chile managed to rank third at World cup 1962, when the country is hosting the tournament. This is the best achievement of the team in the World Cup. There are only a few football tips for Chile to get out of the group, but still such a bet migth be really rewarding.

2. Colombia

The prestigious 8th place in the FIFA rankings of the national teams is occupied by Columbia. They recorded great results in the qualifications and bearing in mind their full of outstanding talents squad, Colombia are definitely the favorite in Group C, where there are also the teams of Japan, Greece and Ivory Coast.

It is now known that the biggest star of the team Radamel Faklao will miss the World cup, but Colombia have other high quality strikers. Carlos Bacca scored 18 goals for Sevilla this season and was a major contributor to the triumph of his club in the Europa League. Adrian Ramos scored 16 goals in the German Bundesliga with the team of Hertha, which finished in the 11th place. Only 4 goals separated Adrian Ramos from becoming the Bundesliga top goalscorer.

The striker of Porto, Jackson Martinez became the top goalscorer of the Portuguese Liga Sagres, scoring 20 goals during the season. The young star of Monaco James Rodriguez is also in great form, but more important than the individual talents in the Columbia squad is that the team has built a beautiful style of play, which so far brings good results. However, it is important to note that the Colombians are also solid in defense. In their qualifying group of 9 teams Colombia conceded the least goals, as a major contribution to this is the central defender Milan - Cristian Zapata.

The weather conditions in South America will not be a surprise to the Colombians, but it`s quite likely that some teams from Europe will face difficulties arising from the weather in Brazil.

3. Belgium

Perhaps the most popular choice for a dark horse of the World Cup 2014 is the team of Belgium. Accordingly, a good performance by the Belgians will not come as a surprise. However, Belgium is not among the traditional favorites of the World Cup, so they can be defined as a possible dark horse.

Many football experts boldly put Belgium even as a favorite to win the title, which seems realistic for this team, called the new "golden generation" of Belgium. The competition in their squad is mind-boggling, as in Belgium`s first 11 there are only world-class players.

With a great contribution to the growth of this team is the coach Marc Wilmots, who has a close relationship with his players, and also manages to instill a serious discipline. The results are present and so the bookmakers set rather low odds for Belgium to reach the semi-finals, and even the final of World Cup 2014.