PANJIM: India are placed in a strong Group A that comprises Brazil, Portugal and Ghana for the Expo 2014 Unity World Cup in the draw released at Florida Hotel and Conference Centre in Orlando, USA.
Group B consists of Columbia, Nigeria, Egypt and Uzbekistan.
The draws were being released in the presence of representatives of all teams and Berhanu Kebede, former president of the Ethiopia Football Federation and presently a Confederation of African Football member for the Club Licensing Committee of the FIFA. He was the FIFA observer of the draws.
The Expo 2014 Unity World Cup’s inaugural ceremony will be held on December 5, at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda where all countries are expected to be present.
Portugal play Ghana in their first game on December 6 at Lal Bahadur Stadium, Hyderabad while Brazil play host India in the second match of the same group on the same day.
Egypt play Nigeria in their first game on December 6, at Bengaluru Football Stadium. Columbia take on Uzbekistan in the second match of the Group B on the same day.
On December 7, Uzbekistan play Egypt while Columbia will be up against Nigeria in Bangalore. On December 8, India play Ghana, while Portugal take on Brazil in Hyderabad.
There will be a switch on December 9 with two teams from Hyderabad moving to Bangalore and vice versa. Brazil will be moving to Bangalore and play their last league encounter against Ghana and the other match at the same venue will be between Uzbekistan and Nigeria.
While in Hyderabad, India play Portugal in the first match of the day and Columbia face Egypt in the last league encounter.
Apart from the opening ceremony, the semi-finals and final are scheduled in Goa, on December 11 and 12 and December 14 respectively.
