“We can’t worry too far ahead past the group stage. If you start thinking about the second round you forget about the teams in the first round, which are important. We have worry about these teams first.”
— Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari
“It is another draw, it is obviously going to be difficult to qualify. I said to people this morning we were going to get Holland and we did, in the first game no less”
— Spain coach Vicente del Bosque
“It’s a tough group, there’s no doubt about that. In Italy and Uruguay it’s almost as though we have got two No 1 one seeds in our group. We know how good Italy are because we lost to them in the quarter-finals at the Euros. The game is going to be tough from a climate point of view for both teams. We’re both in the same boat.
— England coach Roy Hodgson
“We did not go into a group of death, there are other groups which are more complicated, more difficult. Geographically, the draw was also positive.”
— Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella
“Now that we are in such a hard group, then it is good that we are opening the World Cup against Brazil. It will be a great opening, tiny Croatia against great Brazil.”
— Croatia coach Niko Kovac
“Our style of play generally remains the same. We are tough and we don’t concede easily. I don’t care how people describe our game or whether our style will be more defensive or offensive. We will play to make the last 16 and will fight for it as much as we can - you can be sure about that.”
— Greece captain Giorgos Karagounis
