The Biggest Show on Earth - FIFA World Cup 2014

The Biggest Show on Earth - FIFA World Cup 2014

With just a few days left the world is all set to witness the one of the biggest sports event of the year.

The Contenders

There are 32 teams who qualified to compete in the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held at Brazil from June 12 to July 13, 2014.

Newbies in the League

5 teams, Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire qualified from Africa; 4 teams Australia, Japan, Iran and Korea Republic qualify from Asia.

The Qualifiers

England, France, Germany, Italy and Herzegovina alongside 8 others from Europe; USA, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico from from America; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador qualified directly while Urguay made it through Intercontinental play-off.

Groups

These 32 teams constitute 8 Groups named A to H and each Group has 4 teams competing on round-robin basis. There would be 64 matches played at 12 different stadia in 12 different cities of Brazil.

And The Game Begins

The First match shall be played at Arena de Sao Paulo between the host country Brazil and Croatia on Thursday, June 12, 2014 at 17:00 hrs local time (20:00 hrs GMT).

Knock Out

Two top teams from each group qualify for the Knock-out stage. Round of 16 starts on Saturday, June 28 between the qualified teams.

Semi Finals

8 teams qualify in the Quarter-Finals who compete with each other to enter the Semi-Finals.

The Runner Up

The 3rd and 4th place shall be contested by the losing semi-finalists on Saturday July 12, 2014 at 17:00 hrs local time (20:00 hrs GMT) at Estadio Nacional, Brasilia.

Final Battle

The final shall be played at Estadio do Maracana, Rio de Janerio between the top 2 teams on Sunday, July 13, 2014 at 16:00 hrs local time ( 20:00 hrs GMT)

Coverage

The official broadcasters of FIFA World Cup 2014 are Sony Six (India), Middle East (beIN Sports), USA (ABC, ESPN, Univision), Canada (CBC, Sportsnet, TVA), Austraila (SBS), UK (BBC, ITV) and Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (MSM)!

Online Too

There shall be live streaming of all the matches at livsports.in and espn.go.com/watchespn India is 8 hrs and 30 minutes ahead of Brazil! Thus most of the matches shall be telecast at 01:30 AM IST!

Live streaming: livsports.in