Argentina captain Lionel Messi chose 3 teams to be the biggest candidates to threaten his dream of winning the World Cup title, and to add a medal to his championship treasury full of titles.
The 35-year-old Paris Saint-Germain striker will carry Argentina's hopes in Qatar, as the South American country wants to win the Cup for the third time in its history, and the first since 1986.
"When we talk about the favourites, we always talk about the teams themselves," Messi told CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation. "If I had to rank some (candidate) teams, I think: Brazil, France and England have an advantage, but the World Cup is difficult and complicated." And anything can happen."
Messi reached the 2014 World Cup final with Argentina, but lost to Germany after extra time.
Argentina - the Copa America champion - has not lost in the last 35 matches, and if this is Messi's last participation in the World Cup, the team will be on alert to win the title.
"We are very motivated, we have a very good group, but we are thinking of moving forward little by little," said Messi.
And he continued, "We hope to start the World Cup in the best possible way, in order to face what comes later. The more we play and the more time we spend on the field, the more we know each other."
The Argentine national team is playing the first round of the World Cup in Qatar in the third group that includes the teams: Poland, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, and the schedule of its matches during the current month of November will be as follows:
Day 22: Argentina - Saudi Arabia, at Lusail Stadium.
Day 26: Argentina - Mexico, at Lusail Stadium.
Day 30: Argentina - Poland, at Stadium 974.