Spurs legends on the World Cup - Seb Bassong, Sandro and Ramon Vega on Group G

The greatest football show on earth is less than 48 hours from kick-off as Qatar hosts the World Cup.

The first match sees the hosts up against Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium on Sunday (4pm). That begins a run of 48 matches across eight groups until Friday 2 December. The knockout stage begins the next day, 3 December, with the final on Sunday 18 December.

With the tournament looming, we've called on a number of Spurs legends - players and managers - to preview the groups, with an eye on their respective country.

Next up, we've called on three legends to preview Group G - Ramon Vega, Sandro and Sebastien Bassong...

Group G

Switzerland, Cameroon, Brazil, Serbia

Match dates

24/11 - Switzerland v Cameroon, Brazil v Serbia; 28/11 - Cameroon v Serbia, Brazil v Switzerland; 2/12 - Serbia v Switzerland, Cameroon v Brazil.

Ramon Vega

Three-times title winner with Grasshoppers in Switzerland, Ramon joined us in 1997 after a spell at Cagliari. He made 84 appearances between 1997-2001, winning the League Cup in 1999. Capped 23 times and part of the Swiss group that played in Euro 96 under Roy Hodgson, Ramon later won the treble with Celtic and moved into the financial world after retiring in 2004...

“This is a tough group for Switzerland, for one, we have World Cup contenders in Brazil. Serbia are, without a doubt, a very tough opponent, with an unbelievable striker in Dusan Vlahovic at Juventus. They could potentially be a surprise package, but I believe Switzerland could also be a surprise team. The players look in very good shape. Obviously, Granit Xhaka, he’s back to his best. If Swiss can get out of the group, they could be a surprise in this World Cup, in fact, I think whoever gets out of this group could be a potential semi-finalist. Switzerland were the only team to beat Spain in 2010, Spain went on to win it. They are no pushovers. They beat France - sorry, Hugo - in the Euros. We also beat Italy recently. Switzerland now qualify for all the big tournaments. We were one of the first to do that for Euro 96 (the first time Switzerland qualified for the Euro finals, and they made it to just one World Cup, 1994, between 1966-2006) with Roy Hodgson, that has seen the level of football grow and grow, and, for instance, we now have four top players in the Premier League - Denis Zakaria at Chelsea, Xhaka at Arsenal, Fabian Schar at Newcastle, Manuel Akanji at City. In fact, all the players are at top teams across Europe. If you’d asked me 10 years ago about Switzerland’s target at a World Cup, I would have said we were happy to participate. Now, what these guys have achieved already, consistently qualifying for tournaments, beating big nations, we’re no longer just happy to participate, now we’re competing. That’s the difference.”

Sebastien Bassong

Capped 15 times by Cameroon, including featuring at the 2010 World Cup, Seb joined us fro Newcastle in 2009 and marked his debut with a goal in a win against Liverpool. He played 70 times for us and scored a huge goal in our Champions League play-off against Young Boys - our first goalscorer in the competition. He later spent five years at Norwich City and retired in 2020...

“It is a tricky group, and when you get to the group stage of the World Cup, every team deserves to be there. Switzerland, they beat France in the Euros! They played well. They have a lot of good players and seem to have a good spirit. Serbia, they have some real talent, Tadic, Mitrovic, and they are always tough to play, strong, resilient, a real mentality. Then it’s Brazil! The only thing you can hope for Brazil, as good as they are, is they might be off their game. It’s exciting to have Brazil in the group. You have to be on your ‘A’ game, and Cameroon have always been good with that. We are scared of nobody! It’s a special game. It feels like the World Cup when you’re playing Brazil. Can we get out of the group? Impossible is not a word we use in Cameroon. We have something, and it’s all about the togetherness. You can’t compare our squads pound for pound, but in terms of togetherness and spirit around the team, it’s positive.”

Sandro

Ever-popular at Spurs, Sandro made his name at Internacional in Brazil before joining us in 2009. He made 103 appearances for us between 2009-2014, helped us qualify for the UEFA Champions League and had a battle royale with Gennaro Gattuso as we overcame AC Milan in the Round of 16. He won 17 caps for Brazil and later played for QPR before spells in Italy and Portugal...

“Football has changed now. Every team has the level, it’s different, so Brazil have to pay good attention. If you don’t do things right, it could be tough. For us in Brazil, we feel we have a good team, but you have to do it on the pitch, as a team, not individuals. If the squad is thinking, ‘we are a team, we play together’ then with this mentality, we are very strong. Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon these are difficult games. Serbia have some top players, Switzerland beat France in the Euros and then African teams, they are together, so tough to play. Looking at it, I would say Serbia is the toughest game for Brazil, hopefully they will come through that and by the time we play Cameroon, we are through, or we know what we have to do. I just hope that Richarlison can make his mark, he's in form for Brazil and I'm sure he can."

Our World Cup previews - one to go!

Martin Jol on Group A
Paul Robinson, Brad Friedel and Simon Davies on Group B
Ossie Ardiles on Group C
Younes Kaboul on Group D
Steffen Freund on Group E
Paul Stalteri on Group F

Next up, last but by no means least, Guy Poyet and Young-Pyo Lee preview Group H...