It is always a temptation to project the present into the future and the history of the World Cup is littered with countries that treated the tournament as a sprint rather than a very quick middle distance race – league championships are marathons.

So although much of the hot money may have moved in the direction of Argentina, in particular, and Spain, it may not be worth considering some of the other countries who have had the look of Champion-in-waiting over the last half century or so, only to flounder.

1954 – Hungary won their first four games and scored an amazing 25 goals while only conceding 7. One of those wins was 8-3 over West Germany and they met again in the Final. Hungary led 2-0 but West Germany came back to score three in what become known as “The Miracle of Berne.”

1974 – A Johan Cruyff inspired Netherlands won five and drew one while destroying some good teams in the process. They scored from a penalty kick awarded in the first minute of the Final but eventually lost 2-1 to West Germany.

1982 – The best Brazil team since 1970 won their first four games convincingly before a Paulo Rossi hat trick saw them off.

1986 – Denmark won all three games in the “Group of Death” but disintegrated in losing 5-1 to Spain in the first knockout round.

2002 – Spain took a 100% record into the last sixteen and then defeated the Republic of Ireland on penalties. However, the quarterfinal was the end of the road as they lost to South Korea.