North Macedonia is a strong team - they did not let the European champions - Italy into the World Cup 
But seriously, at the moment it is generally impossible to predict who will be in what shape by the beginning of the World Championship, since a lot will depend on which training programs the club coaches will choose.
But seriously, at the moment it is generally impossible to predict who will be in what shape by the beginning of the World Championship, since a lot will depend on which training programs the club coaches will choose.
Yes. North Macedonia is unlucky to have missed the boat to Qatar 2022. But then, who expected them to defeat teams such as Italy and Germany? It is a small nation of 2 million people, and most of us doesn't even know where that country is located. I was just trying to point towards the uncertainty in predicting the winners. This time also, we can expect some of the big teams to get kicked out quite early and some of the less fancied teams to advance to the later stages (similar to what Croatia did last time).
2 million is not so little, for example, Iceland with a population of just over 300 thousand people relatively recently got to the final part of the World Cup, and reached the quarter-finals at the European Championship. There will also be surprises at this World Cup, maybe not from such small teams, but I wouldn't be surprised if some African team makes it to the later stages of the tournament.