MARSEILLE, DEC 5: Defending champion Brazil, host France and powerhouses Italy, Germany and Argentina can already look ahead to the second round. The United States, England and Bulgaria had better make plans for an early flight home. World Cup draw made life easy for some of the powerhouse teams and left others bewildered and in despair.Group A: Brazil, aiming to improve its record to five titles, had one of the easiest groups. Mario Zagallo's star-studded team starts the tournament on June 10 with a game against Scotland, which has made it to the finals seven times but, embarrassingly, has never been past the first round. The Norwegians are tough to beat and play a physical game. But maximum points against the Scots and the Moroccans will mean Zagallo can rest his top-line players for the second round.Group B: The Italians, who slid into the finals on the back of a playoff, probably have the easiest group of all. They first face Chile, the last of the South American qualifiers, and then a declining Cameroon, followed by probably the weakest European team, Austria. The Italians made it to the 1994 final by scrambling past opponents such as Nigeria and Spain. Group C: Host France should have six points in the bag before they meet the Danes in Lyon in their third match. Starting out against debutant South Africa in Marseille, Aime Jacquet's team then meets Saudi Arabia and, with home advantage, should have the all-round strength to give the French fans plenty to cheer before round two. Group D: The toughest group of all appears to be Spain-Nigeria-Bulgaria-Paraguay. The Nigerians start out against Spain in one of the most attractive games. The stars of its last World Cup challenge and Olympic triumph are still around and, if its immensely talented young Inter Milan forward, Nwankwo Kanu, is back to full match fitness, Nigeria can be a major force.Spain has one of the best records in Europe. The Paraguayans and their match winning goalkeeper in Jose Luis Chilavert have to beat the 1994 runner up Bulgaria. Group E: The Dutch and Belgians could get tired of facing each other. Belgium won the last time they met in the finals in 1994 but the Dutch won both their meetings during qualifying for France 1998. The Mexicans, two-time quarterfinalists on home territory, are poor travellers, while the Koreans haven't yet made it past the first round. The Belgians, expected to go out in the first round, may well make it to round two.Group F: The Yugoslavs, fielding stars such as Real Madrid striker Predrag Mijatovic and AC Milan's Dejan Savicevic, could be one of the surprise contenders. They should show their potential with a high-scoring early victory over Iran. Germany wants to make up for a poor series of performances in 1994. Group G: England was hugely disappointed it didn't get a seeding place ahead of Romania and now has the chance to prove something. But the Romanians, who were seeded instead, had the best qualifying record of all 32 nations, dropping only one point in 10 games. With Gheorghe Hagi still around to create havoc in opposing defences, they should get one of the top two places.Group H: Argentina meets three teams making their debuts. The well-organised team, now playing a World Cup without Diego Maradona.
