Russia will not only advance out of the group, but over perform

The tournament needs a home team doing well.

 

Yeah, can certainly feel for Egypt and their star Salah, but it's always nice to see the hosts doing well. Especially a country like Russia, which actually has some pretty good history of fielding fine sides during the Soviet era (yeah, I know some of those players were Ukrainians (and others), as well). Good to see they've now at least performed respectably, regardless of what happens next.

 

Qatar will be the worst world cup hosts. Their team actually isn't that good.

 

That's what they said about Russia

 

the difference is Russia actually qualified for the wc before without being the hosts

 

Yeah they will likely not advance honestly. Qatar is similar to South Africa.

 

Qatar is much, much worse than South Africa had been. South Africa had their golden generation back during the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. Unfortunately they had declined by the time of their hosting, and failed to get out of a pretty tough group.