Only a few days to go and the journey of the most awaiting big summer game, the World Cup 2018, will start. It’s true, that this year some of the big nations are missing from the tournament, but this is the beauty of the big game. The World Cup 2018 will start from 14th June and will continue up to 15th July. Being a crazy football-lover, you must not want to miss a single second of the game. So be prepared, for the year’s most exciting game, plan your summer according to the match-schedule, and have the ultimate fun with your friends in the journey of World Cup 2018.

Venue of the tournaments:

This year, in 2018, the 21st FIFA World Cup will be held mainly in the European Russia. To reduce the journey time for the teams, all the host cities are situated just in or outside of the European Russia. After winning the bid in December 2010, Russia was awarded the hosting rights and after deduction, 11 stadiums in 12 Russian cities have been selected and renovated for the big game. The destination cities are Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kaliningrad, Samara, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov-On-Don, and Sochi.

Official Mascot of 2018 FIFA World Cup:

Mascot Willie, the first official mascot for the FIFA World Cup 1966, was, in fact, the first ever official mascot which was introduced in a major supporting tournament. Since then, each and every FIFA world cup has owned a mascot which is designed to depict a characteristic feature of the hosting country. The official mascot of the FIFA World Cup 2018 is a wolf who is named as Zabivaka and the actual meaning of the word in Russian is the Goalscorer or “the one who scores”.

Match Ball of the FIFA World Cup 2018:

The official ball of the tournament was first inaugurated in November 2017 and it is named as “Telstar 18”. It’s created and named after the famous 1970’s Adidas World Cup ball.

The official song of the FIFA World Cup 2018:

The FIFA World Cup 2018 official music video of the song will be available from 7th June. It is the song from Will Smith, Nicky Jam, and Era Istrfi- “Live It Up” and was officially released on May.

Participating teams:

In the history of FIFA World Cup, this year for the first time all the 209 FIFA member associations and host country Russia joined in the qualifying process. Before the first match, Zimbabwe and Indonesia were disqualified. After the final countdown, all total 32 nations were selected for the World Cup 2018. Among these 32 nations, 20 countries had played in the World Cup 2014, and Panama and Iceland will be participating for the first time in The FIFA World Cup 2018.

The countries which failed to qualify for the big game are: Italy (four-time champion), Cameroon (2017 Africa Cup winner), Netherlands (three-time runner-up), Chile (two-time Copa America Champion and 2017 Confederation Cup runner-up), New Zealand, US ( first time since 1986), Ghana and Ivory Coast etc.

The FIFA World Cup 2018 groups:

All the 32 nations are categorized into 8 small groups named as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. The countries and their respective groups are listed below:

Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay.

Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran.

Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark.

Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria.

Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia.

Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea.

Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England.

Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan.

Match schedule and the destination for the respective matches:

Here is listed all the matches which will be held from 14th June to 15th July, their respective venues, time of the matches, and the participating countries according to their group mark.

30th June to 3rd July the winners match will be held, then 6th and 7th July will be the quarterfinals. The semi-finals will be held on 10th and 11th July and the third-place-pay-off will be on 14th July. After this, on 15th July, at 4 pm, in Moscow, the final match of The FIFA World Cup 2018 will be scheduled.

The FIFA World Cup 2018 and the topmost probable 8 contenders of the Golden Boot:

It’s a much-known fact that the Golden Boot of the tournament goes to the player of the team, who has given the most number of goals in the whole game. This year, there is lots of competition around this prize. If we put aside Ronaldo and Messi, then the others who can actually deserve the Golden Boot are- Neymar (Brazil), Thomas Muller (Germany), Antoine Griezmann (France), Isco (Spain), Harry Kane (England), EdinsonCavani (Uruguay).

Tickets of Russia World Cup 2018:

FIFA World Cup 2018 tickets are available from 18th April to 15th July 2018. There is only one way of selling the tickets and that is first come first serve. So if you are planning on to be the witness of the biggest game of the year, the FIFA World Cup 2018, then don’t be late, just log on to your FIFA.com ticketing account, and apply for the tickets.