José Mourinho predicts that Portugal and England will progress out of World Cup group stages. He also goes for the Netherlands to make it out of the ‘Group of Death’ along with Spain but does not believe Suarez and Uruguay will progress.
He believes England will face Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast in the last-16 and, if they win, it will be a semi-final slot for Roy Hodgson’s team against either Brazil or the Netherlands. The Chelsea boss, clearly keen to keep his friends in the UK, said that England will progress out of their group alongside Italy and jokingly told Yahoo Sport, “’I’m very emotional, I go always with my friends. If I say England out, next season they won’t let me coach here.”
His other predictions include France or Nigeria to play either Germany or Belgium; Spain or Mexico to play Italy or Greece and Argentina or Switzerland to play Russia or Portugal.
There was a recurring theme to his choices, with the personalities and countries closest to the manager’s heart unsurprisingly going through. Louis van Gaal’s Holland, Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast and Nigeria are all predicted to get out of their respective groups.
Meanwhile, he is expecting France – who have won one World Cup group match in 12 years – to perform much better this time around and win their group ahead of Switzerland. The World Cup finals get underway on Thursday June 12 when hosts Brazil play Croatia. England’s first game is a tough one against Italy on Saturday, June 14 at 11pm whilst Portugal meet Germany on Monday, June 16 at 5pm.
