It all starts with co-hosts Mexico taking on South Africa at the famous Azteca (now known as the Estadio Banorte) in Mexico City. Co-hosted by USA and Canada, this will be the 23rd World Cup, the inaugural tournament back in 1930.
As we build up to the summer’s football fest, we take a look at the Spurs players to feature on the greatest stage of all...
Paulinho
Five of our seven players at the 2014 World Cup reached the last eight – with Paulinho part of the Brazil side shocked by Germany on home soil, a defeat now know as the Mineiraço.
The midfielder joined us from Corinthians for the 2013/14 season having won a host of trophies in Brazil including the Copa Libertadores and FIFA Club World Cup in 2012 and was then part of the Brazil squad to win the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013.
Eventually capped 56 times, Paulinho travelled home for the World Cup after scoring eight goals in 37 appearances in his first season at Spurs.
Paulinho started all three group games as Brazil topped the table with wins against Croatia and Cameroon and a draw against Mexico. He didn’t feature in the Round of 16 penalty shoot-out win against Chile, but was then back in for the 2-1 win against Colombia to take Brazil into the semi-finals.
That’s where it all went wrong. Germany were 5-0 up inside half-hour and 7-0 up by the time Oscar scored a late consolation for the heartbroken hosts, 7-1 the infamous final scoreline at the Mineirao Stadium Belo Horizonte.
Nacer Chadli, Mousa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen
Nacer Chadli, Mousa Dembele and Jan Vertonghen were part of the Belgium squad to reach the quarter-finals. All three Spurs players started in the opening group game against Algeria – Nabil Bentaleb lined up for Algeria – but only Jan featured off the bench in the 1-0 win over Russia.
Jan and Mousa were back in for the final group game against Heung-Min Son’s South Korea and Jan scored the winner with Nacer off the bench as the Red Devils progressed to a Round of 16 clash against the USA. Jan started again, Nacer off the bench again in a 2-1 win against the States and it was the same story for the pair as Argentina won the quarter-final 1-0, Mousa didn’t feature.
Nabil Bentaleb
After the opening defeat against Belgium, Nabil’s Algeria also progressed from the group with a 4-2 win against Korea and 1-1 draw against Russia. The midfielder started all three group games but didn’t feature in the Round of 16 loss to Germany.
Hugo Lloris
Hugo Lloris was the last of the five Spurs to make it to the quarter-finals. Hugo started every game and France looked good as they beat Honduras 3-0 and Switzerland 5-2 before a 0-0 draw against Ecuador set up a Round of 16 tie against Nigeria. That was a 2-0 win but Germany got the better of a tight quarter-final, winning 1-0.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto
Again, Cameroon didn’t have the best of times at the finals.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto was back in the squad and started the first two group games – a 0-0 draw against Mexico and 4-0 loss against Croatia. He didn’t feature in the final game, a 4-1 loss to Brazil.