1 (1) -Spain-You could be forgiven for thinking all the speculation surrounding the future of Cesc Fabregas would put the Arsenal or soon-to-be Barcelona midfielder off his game. Nothing of the sort, according to Gerard Pique, who says Cesc is focused on World Cup glory and nothing else.

2 (2) -Netherlands-Arjen Robben will stay with the Oranje squad despite damaging his hamstring in the friendly against Hungary, giving rise to hope the Bayern Munich star will make a recovery in time to play some part in the tournament. Still, he's a huge numpty for getting himself injured by attempting a back heel.

3 (3) -Brazil- First-choice goalkeeper Julio Cesar will miss his first national side game for two years after picking up a back injury. But coach Dunga is not too concerned by the Internazionale man, and expects him to regain full fitness before the start of the tournament.

4 (6) -Germany-New skipper Philipp Lahm got the opener and vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger scored twice from the penalty spot as Joachim Loew's side sealed a morale-boosting 3-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in Frankfurt. They leapfrog England and Italy due to their injury woes.

5 (4) -England-England + 'colourful' referees = recipe for disaster. Controversial Brazilian official Carlos Simon will take charge of the Three Lions' opener against the US. Dubbed 'Simple Simon', he grinningly sent off Sweden's Teddy Lucic at the last World Cup and has courted controversy in his homeland on numerous occasions. And we all know about England players' tendencies to get sent off in big games.

6 (5) -Italy- Injury to Andrea Pirlo has thrown the defending champions' preparations into disarray. Marcello Lippi has called up 24th man Andrea Cossu, although he's not yet in the squad, with Pirlo given until June 13 to prove his fitness. Looks like the trophy will have a new home come July 11.

7 (7) -Argentina-Just days after claiming Spain, Brazil and England were the three best teams at the tournament, Lionel Messi said: "If we look at it player by player, it's hard (to find) another national team better than ours." So what's the difference then Leo - the manager"

8 (8) -USA- Preparation for the tournament continues to go according to plan for Bob Bradley's side, with Jozy Altidore returning to training. The striker, who played for Hull last season, looks likely to be available for Saturday's clash with England.

9 (9) -Portugal- Carlos Quieroz's side have been training at iconic cricket ground The Wanderers as they prepare for their match against Mozambique, their only friendly on South African soil before the tournament starts.

10 (10) -Mexico-After emerging from defeats to England and the Netherlands with credit, Mexico's punishing warm-up schedule may have paid off after they deservedly beat Italy 2-1 with goals from Carlos Vela and Alberto Medina.

11 (12) -Ivory Coast -Good news for the Elephants - Didier Drogba will rejoin the squad on Monday after weekend surgery on a fractured arm. The operation was a success and his recovery has been "extremely encouraging", according to an Ivorian official, giving hope that he may yet feature in the group stages.

12 (11) -France-You know you're in trouble when one of your star players admits there are problems in the camp with just four days to go before the big kick-off. Florent Malouda said: "The World Cup is really close and honestly we have a lot of problems to fix." Oh dear.

13 (13) -Ghana- Followed up a 4-1 hammering from the Dutch with a 1-0 win over Latvia to enter the finals with a degree of confidence.

14 (14) -Chile - Star striker Humberto Suazo has been ruled out of Chile's opener against Honduras, and possibly the next match against Switzerland after injuring his hamstring against Israel.

15 (15) -Uruguay - Bad news for Uruguay - their first opponents France have been able to prepare for the game in "a sanctuary of privacy and indulgence". France's choice of hotel may have caused uproar back at home, but the players certainly seem to be feeling the benefits. "It's a very nice hotel," said playmaker Yoann Gourcuff.

16 (16) -Serbia-Four first-half goals helped the Serbs to a cracking 4-3 win over Cameroon. Milos Krasic, Nenad Milijas, Dejan Stankovic and Marko Pantelic were all on target.

17 (18) -Paraguay - After losing to the Republic of Ireland, Gerardo Martino's team have got back on track - following up their 2-2 draw with Ivory Coast with a 2-0 win over Greece.

18 (17) -Australia- The Socceroos camp has been rocked by news that goalkeeper Brad Jones has returned home to deal with a serious illness in his family. He is unlikely to return.

19 (19) -South Africa- An excellent 1-0 win by the World Cup hosts against Denmark is a huge boost for the Bafana Bafana. They have hit decent form leading into the finals, and Katlego Mphela's second-half goal was enough to down the Danes.

20 (21) -South Korea- Morale boosts do not get any bigger than this: Park Ji-sung has been declared fit for South Korea's opener against Greece after sitting out the warm-up clash with Spain with a thigh injury.

21 (20) -Cameroon- There were goals for the Indomitable Lions but they could not fend off Serbia in a 4-3 defeat. A brace for Achille Webo is promising though.

22 (22) -Slovenia - Slovenia have also been given a boost with news that striker Zlatan Ljubijankic is fit to start in his side's World Cup opener against Algeria.

23 (23) -Denmark - Morten Olsen's side continue to have concerns over the fitness of striker Nicklas Bendtner and defender Simon Kjaer. Bendtner trained separately from the rest of squad as he struggles to get over a groin problem while Kjaer sat out the session entirely.

24 (24) -Slovakia - The injury worries to several players will have been eased by a 3-0 win over Costa Rica. Defender Martin Skrtel picked up an ankle knock but a scan showed no damage and he will play at the World Cup.

25 (25) -Nigeria - The Super Eagles beat North Korea 3-1 but the victory was marred by a stampede which caused at least 14 people to be treated for injuries. The chaotic scenes should not affect their preparations on the pitch though.

26 (26) -Greece - The 2004 European champions' preparations continue to falter as a 2-2 draw against North Korea was followed by a 2-0 defeat to Paraguay.

27 (27) -Switzerland - A 1-1 draw with reigning champions Italy is a more than creditable result, but the sight of Valon Behrami limping off with a hamstring strain is a big worry for the Swiss.

28 (28) -Japan- No action after their defeat to Ivory Coast.

29 (30) -Honduras - Hondurans can breathe a sigh of relief after the groin injury sustained by Wilson Palacios in a warm-up game against Romania turned out to be nothing more than a scare. The Spurs midfielder will be fit for their opener against Chile. "Thank God it's nothing serious," he said.

30 (29) -New Zealand- The Kiwis recorded a superb win over Serbia only to follow it with a poor defeat to Slovenia.

31 (31) -Algeria - A win! Karim Ziani's goal gave the North Africans a 1-0 victory over UAE as they go into the finals with a bit of confidence.

32 (32) -North Korea - A 3-1 defeat to Nigeria will not have given the DPR much confidence ahead of the big kick-off.

HOW IT WORKS

We conducted a poll of Eurosport-Yahoo! writers, asking them to rank each team based on their expected performance if the World Cup were to start tomorrow.

We then took an average mark from the poll results to create this list. The tournament draw is not taken into account - it is an assessment of performance level, not likelihood of success.

We will publish revised rankings every day until the end of the World Cup, with countries moving up and down based on friendly results, injuries, scandals and other factors.

Eurosport