The biggest sporting event is in one month’s time so here’s a preview of Group E, featuring France, Honduras, Switzerland and Ecuador. Les Bleus will be looking to win a first World Cup in 16 years while the remaining teams can be hopeful of qualifying from the group.

Stars to look out for

France have done well to recover ever since the disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign where they finished bottom in the group - they now have a stable team with good team chemistry, boasting some of world football’s biggest stars. From Raphael Varane to Mathieu Valbuena to Antoine Griezmann to Laurent Koscielny to Blaise Matuidi, the French can be confident of upsetting the odds. The key men though will undoubtedly be Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba.

Switzerland also have a host of stars to rely on - Xherdan Shaqiri, Gokhan Inler, Josip Drmic and Valon Behrami are a few to mention. As for Honduras, they’ll be reliant on Andy Najar and Premier League veteran, Maynor Figueroa while Ecuador will be relying on their captain and Manchester United winger, Antonio Valencia as well as a few other players in Felipe Caicedo, Christian Noboa and Jefferson Montero.

Who could go through?

It’s no surprise that France are the favourites to qualify from the group as their odds of 1.20 @ Bet365.com clearly show - they are superior to the rest of Group E in virtually every department and it would be a huge surprise if they were to finish below top spot. As for qualifying from the group, Switzerland’s odds of 1.66 @ Bet365.com show that they could end up in 2nd spot though Ecuador’s odds of 1.90 @ Bet365.com mean they the South American side are also in for a shout, especially if they can defeat the Swiss side. Honduras’ odds of 7.50 @ Bet365.com mean it’s likely that they’ll finish bottom of the group and not qualify from the group for a second consecutive World Cup barring any real surprises.

World Cup winners?

If France can get going right off the bat, they have an outside chance of going all the way in Brazil - they certainly have the squad and talent to do so but question marks remain over their mentality and if they can hack it against the likes of Germany, Spain and Brazil in a competitive game. Their odds of winning the World Cup are at 23.00 @ Bet365.com though and it’s definitely worth a punt though in all probability, Les Bleus would do well to reach the last four.

World Cup Group E Fixture:

15.06.2014 Switzerland-Ecuador

15.06.2014 France-Honduras

20.06.2014 Switzerland-France

21.06.2014 Honduras-Ecuador

25.06.2014 Honduras-Switzerland

25.06.2014 Ecuador-France