Iraq

Forty years is a long time to wait. Not since 1986 has Iraq appeared at a World Cup, and the Lions of Mesopotamia return as one of the more compelling stories of the field. Their identity was forged elsewhere: in 2007, with the country at war, they won the Asian Cup, a triumph that remains seared into the national memory. Now the Spanish coach Jesús Casas has steered a young, hungry generation through the play-off route to North America. Aymen Hussein leads the line, with Ali Al-Hamadi of Ipswich offering another route to goal and Hussein Ali anchoring the defence. Group I, alongside France, Senegal and Norway, leaves little margin. For Iraq the achievement is in being here at all, and a single point would feel like its own kind of victory.