More precisely, the group draw forced them to prove more of their worth. Netherlands and Mexico are good teams that just happened to be in the strongest pair of groups. Ivory Coast also a good team, narrow losses to Neth. and Arg. Italy won a hard group. Ukraine, England, Germany, and to a lesser degree France may be mere flukes. But of course, we will find this out after the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals will tell us whether e.g. Ukraine is a mere fluke, or actually a veritable team that just was lucky enough to be in an easy (the easiest!) group and an easy pair of groups and cruise (relatively speaking - penalties are no crusing!) to the final 8.

BRAZIL most talented squad. Players in squad with experience of winning WC. Probably contain the most match winners of any side on show in last 8.
GERMANY home advantage good going forward create chances.
PORTUGAL can keep the ball good in attack and defence can play by any means to win if necessary.
ENGLAND playing badly but winning imo a good sign the players know this so i think a good performance is on the cards. with ROONEY in your team anything is possible.
ITALY Mentally tough One of the few teams i could see holding out BRAZIL if they scored first best defence. Any team will have to take the chances they get against them.
ARGENTINA probably the most consistent performances of any in last eight. Strong in attack create chances.
FRANCES good mix young/old players with WC winning experience.
UKRAINE no let me think