Group C Team Profiles
Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan
Colombia
Colombia, who have produced ball wizards like Rene Higuita and Carlos Valderama, will be making their sixth appearance at a World Cup.
Monaco-based Radamel Falcao, a goal glutton and game breaker of note, may not feature prominantly due to ongoing knee trouble, but would surely be among the tournament's leading lights if he is fully fit. In tandem with attacking midfielder James Rodriguez, they have the ability to carve open opposing defences, which explains why Colombian fans are holding their breaths
that Falcao will be fit.
Add Jackson Martinez of Porto, Adrian Ramos of Hertha Berlin and Carlos Bacca of Sevilla to the mix and we see a potent cocktail of stars capable of taking Colombia into the business end of the tournament.
Always a danger on South American soil, Colombia are another addition to our list of "Dark Horses" and could walk away with group honours.
Greece
Greece will be making their third appearance at a World Cup. Nicknamed The Pilattes Ship, the Greeks only announced their arrival in the 1994 tournament in the USA.
Captain Giorgos Karagounis remains the stand-out player in the Greek line-up. Look out too for front rankers Mitro-glou and Dimitrios Salpin-gidis.
The Greeks can't be written off and are a good bet to make the final 16.
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast will be making their third appearance at a World Cup.
Known as The Elephants, the West African nation made their debut at the 2006 tournament in Germany.
While the country boasts incredible talent from the best leaagues in the world, they just don't seem to gel as a unit and have failed to make it past the group stages in their only two previous appearances.
They are spearheaded by veteran Didier Drogba, who is close to retirement, but other names to look out for are City midfielder Yaya Toure, Gervinho, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue.
As the highest-ranked African nation at the 2014 tournament, the hopes of Africa are firmly pinned on their shoulders.
Japan
Japan will be making their fifth appearance at a World Cup.
Nicknamed the Blue Samurai, the Far East nation only first appeared at the 1998 edition in France.
Japan’s most successful showing was reaching the Second Round in 2002 and again in South Africa 4 years ago. On the field the Japanese will call on the experience of Manchester United’s Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda of AC Milan.
The plucky Japanese have a good chance of advancing to the knockout stages again for the third time in five World Cups.