Head Coach: Berti Vogts
Captain: Resad Sadiqov
Star Player: Branimir Subasic
Best Ever World Cup Placing: Never Qualified.


Azerbaijan is one of three Group Four teams never to have made it to a World Cup finals tournament before. The team lacks quality and the most goals ever before scored by an Azerbaijan international is a mere 12. The player to have scored these 12 goals for Azerbaijan was Gurban Gurbanov between the years of 1992 and 2005; in total he made 65 appearances for the international team leaving him joint 4th in the current list of most capped Azerbaijan internationals.

Azerbaijan played its first international game of football in 1927 in a game against Georgia; the game was drawn 1-1. During the Soviet era the side did not play any international matches however and it was only in 1991 that the country once more gained its independence. After gaining independence; Azerbaijan once more played its first game against Georgia, this time losing 6-3.

Head Coach: Stuart Baxter
Captain: Jari Litmanen
Star Player: Mikael Forssell
Best Ever World Cup Placing: Never Qualified.


Having never before qualified for a World Cup finals tournament before; Finland is most definitely a Group Four team to watch out for. Finland is not a team to be underestimated; Mikael Forssell and Jonatan Johansson are really very good in attack and there are also quite a few other strong Finnish players present in this team.

For Finland it will probably be more a battle for third place with Wales than a tussle for the two top positions with Russia and Germany; if the Finnish team plays to the very best of its ability however then this could well be a team to cause a few upsets in Group Four. Finland is not the best national side in Group Four; definitely still one to watch out for however.

Head Coach: Joachim Low
Captain: Michael Ballack
Star Player: Lukas Podolski
Best Ever World Cup Placing: Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)


Three times winners of the World Cup; Germany has always been a powerful footballing nation and I really expect the team to dominate Group Four. Russia will no doubt chase them all the way, I'm expecting Germany to be the team to top the group however and really don't feel that anyone else in this group quite has the quality to outdo them and finish first.

Everywhere you look in the German team you will find quality; that said the German team does now lack an experienced goalkeeper due to the recent international retirement of Jens Lehmann; everywhere else the team is excellent however and most definitely in attack there are plenty of options. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, and Mario Gomez are three current German footballing greats; all aged 24 and under and all know very well how to find the back of the oppositions net. Germany has a great international football team at current and youth is also well and truly on the countries side.

Head Coach: Hans-Peter Zaugg
Captain: Mario Frick
Star Player: Mario Frick
Best Ever World Cup Placing: Never Qualified.


Liechtenstein is another of the teams never to have qualified for a World Cup finals tournament before. The highest FIFA ranking the team has ever achieved is 118; the lowest the side has ever sunk however is 165th (out of 207 I hasten to add). To put this into perspective; the lowest the German national team has ever dropped to is 23rd, 40th for Russia, and 79th for Finland.

Liechtenstein has little to no hope of qualifying for World Cup 2010; it could happen but I really can't see it myself. 5th or 6th are the most likely positions for Liechtenstein in the final Group Four table; anything higher than this and the Liechtenstein national football team has done its country incredibly proud.

Head Coach: Guus Hiddink
Captain: Sergei Semak
Star Player: Andrei Arshavin
Best Ever World Cup Placing: Round 1 (1994, 2002)


Having reached the Semi-finals of Euro 2008 before being eliminated at the hands of winners Spain; the Russian football team will be looking to progress from this and once more achieve great success at World Cup 2010. Russian football is currently on the rise, there's a lot of money being pumped into the sport at the moment and the fact that the Russian football team reached the Semi-finals at Euro 2008 is fantastic proof that the money that is being injected into the sport is really paying off.

I still feel that Germany will win this group, it will be a very close one however and the Russian team will no doubt push Germany all the way right to the very end. Russia is likely to be a constant thorn in the side of the German national football team throughout this Group Four qualifying phase. The Russian national team is currently managed by Dutch Guus Hiddink who has previously achieved great things with both the South Korean and Australian national football teams.

Head Coach: John Toshack
Captain: Craig Bellamy
Star Player: Gareth Bale
Best Ever World Cup Placing: Quarter-finals (1958)


Wales; a nation that hit its footballing peak more than half a century ago now. Wales has never been too bad at football, always the team just about loses out however and the Welsh nation is left wondering what might have been if the team had just got that one extra point required to reach an international football tournament.

It's a tough group for Wales; Germany are definite favourites to win the group and Russia favourites to take that second spot, Wales have an outside chance of finishing in the top two however but the chances are that they'll end up finishing third and once more many a Welsh heart will be broken.

.

Azerbaijan

Finland

Germany

Liechtnstn

Russia

Wales

Azerbaijan

x

-

-

0-0

-

-

Finland

-

x

3-3

-

-

-

Germany

-

-

x

-

-

-

Liechtnstn

-

-

0-6

x

-

-

Russia

-

-

-

-

x

2-1

Wales

1-0

-

-

-

-

x

Team

Pld

GD

PTS

1. Germany

2

6

4

2. Russia

1

1

3

3. Wales

2

0

3

4. Azerbaijan

2

-1

1

5. Liechtenstein

2

-6

1

6. Finland

1

0

1