The dream teams

What's the best ever World Cup game? Or the greatest team? The Soccer Saturday boys have their say...

Soccer Saturday stars discuss great sides and classic matches

It's not long until the World Cup kicks off - and our panel of experts are here to tell you exactly what you can expect in South Africa. Here on skysports.com, we've brought together the studio stars of Soccer Saturday - Jeff Stelling, Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson, Phil Thompson and Charlie Nicholas - to share their thoughts on football's showpiece tournament. In the coming days they'll bring you their tips on the players and teams to look out for in South Africa - as well as debating some of the big World Cup talking points. And after telling us about their ultimate goals and players, the boys have had their say on the World Cup's greatest matches - as well as the finest teams to grace football's biggest stage.

skysports.com: We've heard about your favourite individual players, but football is about 11 men. In your opinion, which is the greatest team in World Cup history? THOMMO: Anyone who loves football will go for the 1970 Brazil team. It was a coming together of a number of players who were all peaking at the same time and it really was the beautiful game. They were aggressive too, but not in terms of kicking people. They zipped the ball around with such speed and precision and there was a power about their performances. It wasn't passing and moving for the sake of it, there was a steely determination of a group of players who were desperate to succeed. CHARLIE: I'd have to go for that Brazil team as well. The names of Pele, Jairzinho, Tostao and Rivelino are still falling off my tongue and I'll never forget the captain Carlos Aleberto scoring a wonderful goal against Italy. I also have memories of Pele shooting just over the bar from his own half or when he dummied around the keeper and put it just wide. There are so many fabulous memories. MERSE: Brazil 1970? I wasn't born then. Thommo and Charlie can tell you about that! Personally I'd say average teams don't win the World Cup. Yes, some teams are not as entertaining as others, but all the winners have had to have the whole package to win the World Cup. MATT: I was too young to remember the great Brazil team of 1970 but have seen plenty of them on video and they look pretty special. In my lifetime, I'm not sure there has been one World Cup winning team that has been outstanding. The French team in 1998 were pretty good, the Italian team that won it in 2006 were pretty average and the 1994 Brazil team hardly played everyone off the park. So I'd probably pick the Brazil 1970 World Cup team - from what I've seen on TV. MERSE: I'll tell you what though, the best team never to win the World Cup was Brazil in 1982 before they lost to Paolo Rossi's hat-trick. They were phenomenal, even though they didn't have a proper centre-forward. They played a lad called Serginho (I could never pronounce his name) up front and he was very average. He was so bad I wasn't sure if he was born in Brazil! But the rest of them - Zico, Eder, Socrates, Junior - they were a top team. JEFF: I'm going to go with someone completely different and that's Italy in 2006. Time and time again people wrote them off in that tournament, but they came through it and won it in the end. It's part of the Italian psyche I think, they just know how to win, which is why I think it would be dangerous to write them off again this year. skysports.com: And what is the greatest game you have ever seen at a World Cup? MATT: I would have said the 1966 final, but I wasn't old enough to see it! CHARLIE: I remember Brazil beating Peru 4-2 in 1970 and both teams were playing all-out attack. It was like Arsenal v Barcelona at the Emirates last season, absolutely fantastic. I remember being glued to the television as an eight-year-old boy. That game has got to be up there. MERSE: My favourite game of all time is Italy v Brazil in 1982 when Rossi scored that hat-trick. Alongside the FA Cup semi-final replay between Manchester United and Arsenal in 1999 it's the best game I've ever seen. I'll never forget how good Brazil were, only for Rossi to beat them with three goals. To get a hat-trick at any standard of football is a feat, but to get it in the World Cup against the best Brazilian team I've seen in my lifetime is something else. CHARLIE: Merse is right. That game is the greatest of all time. Rossi had been so quiet in the game and then bang, bang, bang - they won 3-2. Brazil had players like Socrates, Zico and Eder who were wonderful true footballers, but they played risk at the back and that gave the Italians opportunities. Italy had tough players like Gaetano Scirea and Claudio Gentile, who I played against when they were at Juventus. It was an enthralling encounter and was a bit like what we see in modern football where one team goes for the throat, while the other team waits and waits before pouncing on its prey. It was remarkable. THOMMO: It's so hard to pick one but I think the 1982 semi-final between France and West Germany would be up there. It was an absolutely incredible game and had everything. The game finished 3-3 and West Germany won on penalties, but it was also the game in which Harald Schumacher came flying out of his goal and nearly decapitated France's Patrick Battiston! JEFF: The best World Cup game I can remember was between England and Cameroon at Italia '90 which had absolutely everything. Cameroon had some good players, including of course Roger Milla, but I think everyone thought we would roll them over because WE were England and who were they?! But of course it didn't work out like that and we were more than a bit lucky to get through in the end, but it was a fantastically dramatic game. MATT: In my lifetime I think I'd have to go for England v Argentina in 1998. As an Englishman, there were so many ups and downs in that game and I was on the edge of my seat throughout. Seeing Michael Owen score that fabulous goal was something special and then David Beckham had that harsh red card and Sol Campbell had a winning goal disallowed. That was a very frustrating moment. Those low moments, contrasted with the high of Owen's goal, made it a really good game to watch.