With the stars aligning the 2018 World Cup may be the most competitive and compelling tournament in years

As it begins to take shape Russia 2018 might actually be the closest tournament we’ve had to Euro 2000 in terms of make-up and quality

Spain are rounding into form just in time for next summer's showpiece (AFP)

If one of the factors in the debate about the interest in international football right now has been how one-sided too many qualifying matches are, there is actually something from those fixtures that could fire the level again come next summer, that could really hold attention.

It is that many of those games are one sided because, well, a group of the great football countries have really hit a stride and suggested something special.

World champions Germany continue to bring through quality player after quality player with a barely a break in performance. Former champions Spain are revitalised and absolutely purring again, having brought their own new generation through. Champions elect France have perhaps the most star-studded team on the planet. Most frequent champions Brazil, then, have been given a new resilience and focus by manager Tite.

And that is before we even get to high-quality next-tier squads like Belgium or Chile… let alone Leo Messi’s Argentina. That the Argentines have struggled to quality still probably says more about their current problems than the state of international football, but this hugely exciting group of challengers does speak to the latter.

This is already set up to be a hugely competitive and compelling World Cup, and one that does mark a break from recent history. It might actually be the closest tournament we’ve had to Euro 2000 in terms of make-up and quality.

That European Championships is commonly seen as high point in international football and one of its greatest ever tournaments because of how many top-class attacking sides were performing at a top level, pushing each other to ever more pulsating and entertaining games. Other events, however, then pushed international football over that peak and into a bit of decline.

The Champions League had been expanded to 32 teams that season for the first time, congesting the calendar, and beginning the gradual move towards the complete domination of the club game.

With star players and the most talented squads thereby often exhausted at the end of long seasons, it meant that the first few international tournaments after the Champions League expansion were more open than ever - but also involved fairly low-quality football. That is one huge reason for the amount of shocks and big teams going out early in the 2002 World Cup, as well as Greece claiming Euro 2004.

The 2002 World Cup was marked by upsets before Brazil triumphed (AFP)

The differences between the smooth cohesion of the best club sides and the more patched-together nature of international sides also became impossible not to notice, until the identity imposed by the country’s coaching as well as a Barcelona core ensured Spain began to hit those levels. They became the first country to win three major competitions in a row with Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, and perhaps the greatest international team ever.

The one great shame of that Spanish era, however, was the lack of a grand showdown; the absence of a truly great rival.

A peak Spain never got to meet a peak Germany, the country who best replicated what the Spanish had done with their youth systems. When they met in 2008 and 2010, it was just too early for Jogi Loew’s side. By the time that German squad came to fruition for the 2014 World Cup, that historic Spain were part of history, they were done. Loew’s team themselves went on to suffer something of a lull in 2016, reflecting something about that tournament in general.

It was open for the wrong reasons, because nobody was really at a top level. Italy were by far the most cohesive and exciting side because of Antonio Conte, but his managerial ability was not matched by the ability of his squad. A reactive and merely well-organised Portugal ended up winning it, in a victory that had many echoes of Greece 2004.

The Spain team were a modern great but never had a true rival (AFP)

It may well be followed by something that echoes Euro 2000. The last year has seen so many of these sides come on too, to the point that it is difficult to pick out a favourite for the World Cup, but thereby so easy to look forward to some properly tantalising games. There are just so many sides on form now.

Some of this is ironically down to the forces that have so transformed the club game, and had made it so much more attractive than international football.

Countries like Spain, Germany and France - and to a less economically powerful extent Belgium and Iceland - have essentially industrialised youth production, but the natural ebbs and flows of talent generating does seem to have led to a sweet spot where they all have very exciting generations.

Germany finally saw off Argentina in 2014 (Getty)

The players that Spain, France and Germany could easily leave behind would be stars in most international squads.

Even beyond Europe, though, the very competitiveness of South American qualifiers also fosters the feeling that that continent’s sides will once again enrich a World Cup, offering something missing from Europe.

Then there’s Argentina, and the greatest player in the world. They will suffer a long night of the soul in trying to get to Russia via Ecuador in the early hours of Wednesday morning. After their own harrowing spell of losing three major finals in a row, it does seem like a certain depression has afflicted the squad, and created an anxiety and psychological reticence that has led to them so struggling to score in these qualifiers. So many blanks seem a perfect representation of their very imperfect team mindset.

It still isn’t difficult to imagine that one break, one key result that actually gets them there would release so much, especially with someone like Jorge Sampaoli in charge.

It could further charge next summer’s World Cup, one that should feel a world away from the current international malaise. The stars, so to speak, could very well align.