Lionel Messi-led Argentina is no doubt heavily favored to win Group F while the battle for the second place is wide open.

The Argentines were handed a good draw as they were grouped with debutants Bosnia and Herzegovina, African champion Nigeria and Asia's top-ranked Iran.

Argentina has won two editions of the World Cup held previously in South America, in 1978 and 1986. This time, with the "Fantastic Quartet" of Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria, they aim to lift the World Cup for the third time in Brazil.

Messi, the four-time World Player of the Year, has won every major title with Barcelona but still needs to prove himself by leading Argentina to glory on the World Cup stage and build his reputation as one of the all-time greats.

Argentina reached the quarterfinals at three of the last four tournaments, going down to Germany in 2006 and 2010 and to Netherlands in 1998, and has not reached the semi-finals since the 1990 World Cup when it reached the final and was defeated by the Germans.

This time in their arch-rival Brazil's backyard, Argentina set their sights on ending a quarter-final curse.

Argentina's eminence means the other three teams in Group F need to fight against each other to secure a berth in the knock-out stage.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is this year's World Cup debutant. However, based on their performances during the qualifiers, their fans have already looked beyond the group stage.

Reaching the last 16 probably is the minimum goal for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which possess Edin Dzeko of Manchester City and Vedad Ibisevic of Stuttgart up front and Roma playmaker Miralem Pjanic, Lazio winger Senad Lulic and Hoffenheim's Sejad Salihovic.

The team will be out to repeat their form that made them the fourth-highest scorers in the European qualifiers.

While a win against Argentina in its opening group match at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium seems a mission impossible, Bosnia and Herzegovina has every chance to beat the other two.

Nigeria and Iran are no longer newcomers in World Cup, both of them having four previous appearances. Nigeria, tipped as the "Super Eagles", also advanced to the top 16 in its maiden World Cup finals appearance in 1994 and again four years later in France.

Having won the African Nations Cup last year, Nigeria failed to prove themselves in the Confederation Cup, losing to Uruguay and world champion Spain.

Meanwhile, its most influential player John Obi Mikel just finished a lackluster season in the English Premier League as he struggled for a regular place in Chelsea.

Nigeria and Argentina are old rivals as the pair met in the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Netherlands 2005, the gold medal match at the Olympic football tournament in 2008 and the group stage at the 2010 South Africa World Cup. On all three occasions Nigeria lost, and this time they may find even harder.

Iran travel to Brazil as Asia's top-ranked team but its hopes of reaching the knock-out stage for the first time is slim.

Yet the side coached by former Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz want to use the World Cup stage to prove their worth.

"(We must) take this World Cup as a learning process, and that doesn't mean that we go there for tourism," he said.