LAST EIGHT

New Mexican manager Miguel Herrera has placed to the task of getting at least to the last eight of the World Cup 2014. The group stages for this major tournament have just been announced and it has been learned that makes it will be playing alongside hosts Brazil amongst others.

Croatia and Cameroon are the other members, thus making it a very strong group. Mexico recently appointed Miguel Herrera as manager in order to help the team qualify for this tournament and also do well. This was due to the poor showing of the nation at the 2013 Confederations Cup.

As preparation for this major tournament, Mexico will be playing in a friendly match against South Korea – one of the teams qualified for the World Cup. This friendly will take place towards the end of January, while Mexico have also planned two more against Nigeria and Ecuador in the coming months. Ahead of this friendly, Herrera has spoken about in the squad that he will be using. It has been revealed that most of the players for this match will be those who took part in the qualifying play-offs against New Zealand in November.

Mexico have to go through a play-off in order to qualify, but they managed to beat New Zealand 9-3 on aggregate.
"Nigeria we are comparing with Cameroon because of the region and because they have similar attributes. Ecuador is because it is in South America and it is a national team that faces Brazil and Argentina," Herrera said Friday. The manager remained upbeat about the chances of Mexico doing well despite being in a tough group. The nation begins its World Cup campaign with a match against Cameroon followed by the big one against Brazil. The opening match is expected to lay down a marker for the outcome.