The group seemingly has everything -- exciting teams with starkly different styles, long-running grudges to be settled, records waiting to be broken.

When it is all over, the winner is likely to have earned a relatively easy passage to the semi-finals, while the team that finishes second -- no mean feat -- may only have won the daunting prospect of matches against champions France and four-times winners Brazil.

"We are in the most difficult group, no doubt about that at all," English coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said in December after learning he had been drawn against his countrymen, the Swedish, as well as the tournament favourites Argentina.

"But everything is possible. We can beat any team in the world on a good day."

Eriksson will be hoping that at least one of those good days dawns on June 7 in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, when his young team takes on Argentina in the tournament's most eagerly awaited clash.

The game comes four years after a pulsating struggle in France, when Argentina squeezed past a 10-man England team on penalties after star midfielder David Beckham was controversially sent off.

Beckham's chance for revenge seemed to have gone when he broke his left foot just weeks before the finals, but his apparent recovery should see him start what will be an emotionally charged match, adding to a history of bitter confrontations between the teams.

"He knows it's a special match," Argentina midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron said of Manchester United team mate Beckham on Tuesday.

An injury nightmare for Eriksson seems to have eased in recent days with nearly all his players back in training and he will be hoping England can reproduce the form that saw them crush Germany 5-1 in a qualifier in Munich last year.

ARGENTINA FAVOURITES

On paper, though, neither England, Sweden nor Nigeria are a match for an Argentina team that boasts a wealth of world-class players in every position and that qualified with contemptuous ease, despite their nation's ravaging economic crisis.

Coach Marcelo Bielsa has selection "problems" that other coaches would love to share.

Does he choose the proven Gabriel Batistuta or rising star Hernan Crespo to spearhead his attack? Superb players like Barcelona's Javier Saviola who would walk into any other squad have been left out all together.

But even the Argentina players know they are in for a gruelling first round. "Nothing's going to be decided until the third game (against Sweden). The first game is going to show the way, but the zone will be decided in the last fixture," midfielder Diego Simeone said.

Sweden will have high hopes of a good start against England in Saitama on June 2, having not lost to them in 34 years.

Their usual strong organisation now boasts some flair in the form of attacking duo Freddie Ljungberg and Henrik Larsson, who both play their club football in Britain.

England will hope history is on their side for the game against Nigeria on June 12. They have never lost to an African team.

The Nigerians have the ability to beat anyone and in Africa's most expensive footballer, midfielder Austin "Jay Jay" Okocha, they have a true match winner.

But a recent raft of changes, including a new manager following their failure to reach the African Nations Cup final, may have left them vulnerable.

The humid conditions in Japan will favour them, however, and could leave Sweden and England struggling. Several Swedish players voiced worries about the humidity after their 1-1 warm-up draw against hosts Japan on Saturday, and Eriksson has also mentioned it as a factor.

Ominously, both teams face sweltering afternoon kick-offs against Nigeria, in the southern venues of Kobe and Osaka.