2018 World Cup: 3 One-Man Teams at Russia

The biggest cup competition in the history of sports, the FIFA World Cup, is just around the corner. All teams are preparing to try and lay their hands on the most coveted prize in football.

The 4th June deadline to hand in all final 23-man squads has arrived and we've now got a better understanding of which players will make the trip to Russia in order to try and bring glory to their respective countries.

World Cups peak the interest of football fans when team-mates turn into foes as they don the colors of their national side. While some teams like Germany, Brasil, Spain, and Argentina can all count on a host of quality players to chose from, other nations lack the depth in quality that these sides possess and therefore rely on a couple of big names to employ their talents and their experience to try and drag their countries into the next round of the competition.

Here, we take a look at three such nations who will be relying heavily on their marquee players to make their run in the competition a successful one:

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#3 Portugal

Well, let's get the most obvious one out of the way. Portugal is as one-man a team as they come with their over-reliance on the Real Madrid superstar.

The Portuguese national side has seen many illustrious names play for them with the likes of Luis Figo and Deco all playing a part in the country's footballing history, but few have garnered the kind of attention and support that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has.

Ronaldo has to be central to any plans of replicating the success they enjoyed in the last European competition they were a part of.

The megastar is the leading active goalscorer for his country with 81 goals in 149 appearances. He was crucial in their Euro 2016 success having scored three goals including one in the semi-final victory over Wales.

The experience of having scored in the World Cup thrice will no doubt add to his confidence and that of Portugal as they prepare to stage an upset in Russia.

#2 Denmark

Christian Eriksen is the most recognized Danish player in their ranks.

Christian Eriksen has quickly emerged as one of the most consistent and talented players in the middle of the park, not just in the Premier League, but arguably in all of Europe.

His signing, after the sale of Bale to Madrid, has been the only one that has paid dividends so far as he continues to dominate games for Tottenham under Mauricio Pochettino.

However, when wearing the national colors of Denmark, the midfielder will not have the services of the likes of Delli Alli or Harry Kane to rely on. Although the likes of Kasper Schmeichel and Andreas Christensen have both played in England's premier league, most of the burden of helping his team advance to the next round of the competition will be firmly on the shoulders of the Tottenham man.

With the Lord, Nicholas Bendtner, also set to miss out through injury Eriksen will be the center of attention as far as Denmark are concerned.

#1 Egypt

Mo Salah

The team that will undeniably be the most reliant on their star man will be Egypt. Luckily for them, their star man has been playing out of his skin this season. We, of course, speak of Mohammed Salah and his unbelievable rise in world football.

A couple of years ago, no one would've even acknowledged the existence of the Egyptian national team expect those back home, but now the world cannot get enough of the Liverpool man and his supernatural ability to keep affecting games.

In Russia though, Mo Salah will need a miracle that surpasses the one he experienced with Liverpool in the recently concluded Premier League season in which he ended up being the record leading goal scorer in its history.

We need little analysis to see how Salah benefitted under Klopp and his aggressive style of play which was built upon fast counter attacking football, something the winger revels in.

The situation with his national team will be very different as he will lack the quality he is used to at Liverpool with hardly any of the players household names. One thing is for certain though, as much as Salah enjoyed being the main man at Anfield this season, he will almost certainly enjoy an even more elevated stature with his national side as he will have to be the man to script history for Egypt if they are to enjoy any sort of success in Russia.