By Andreas Gkoumplias,
The time when everyone around the world celebrates football has finally come. Less than 10 days remain before the beginning of the World Cup of 2022, hosted in Qatar and taking place for the very first time during winter. Though extremely controversial, for a multitude of reasons, some of which were analyzed in a past article of mine, this time we are going to go over each one of the groups and make a little analysis on what is expected from each team, look for outsiders and potentially favorites to win the trophy. Of course, a disclaimer is necessary here; the analysis reflects my personal opinion, so if any of you reading this disagrees with that, it is completely fine!
The tournament will last less than a month, with the first match between Qatar and Ecuador scheduled to be played on 11/20, after the opening ceremony, and the final on 12/18. The format of the tournament is as follows; after the preliminary qualification matches, the 32 teams that have made it through, advance to the final stage of the tournament. They are divided into 8 groups, each consisting of 4 teams, where the first two teams of each group make it to the second round, narrowing the field to 16 teams. From there, single knockout matches are played till the grand final, where the winners advance, after extra time and a penalty shootout if needed.
And now that the technical details are out of the way, let’s see the groups and analyze them one by one;
Group A: The Netherlands, Ecuador, Senegal, Qatar
Arguably a strange group in its own right where every team can move on to the second phase and every team can lose and be out of the tournament. Starting off the World Cup hosts, Qatar has proven to be a very tough and well-trained team with great chemistry between them. It is said that the national team of Qatar has been training and playing friendly matches for the past 7 months, expecting to make a good run in the tournament that they host, and the chemistry between them is the key to making a difference.
The second team in the first group is no other than the Cup of Africa victors, Senegal. After beating Egypt in the penalty shootout, in the Cup of Africa final, after what proved to be a very hard and difficult game for both teams, Senegal sure wants to make sure that their third world cup appearance, after 2002 and 2018 won’t go unnoticed. Thirsty for making it to the next stage and why not even further, the Senegal team proves to be a strong and balanced one, conceding so far in their 0.5 goals in their last 6 games and scoring an average of 1.5. While this proves they function well as a team, their biggest star is of course Bayern Munchen’s Sadio Mane, who however left the last league game vs Werder Bremen injured, with a status report unknown yet.
The third team of Group A is going to be the Netherlands. By many they have been characterized as a team of future prodigies, the Netherlands has proven to be a team based heavily on the offensive aspect of the game. Their record of 14 goals for and 6 against in the last 6 Nations League games confirm so. They are viewed as one of the potential favorites for progressing far in the tournament, despite some viewing them as a rather unsafe option, due to the fact that the team is rather young and inexperienced. Many star players playing on the top level are on the team, however, all eyes are going to be focused on Barcelona’s prodigy Frenkie De Jong, Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk, despite his lack of form lately, and Memphis Depay, playing for Barcelona as well, who is making a run to recover from his injury and make it to the tournament.
The last team of group A is Ecuador. Neither the strongest nor the weakest the Ecuador football team is one of the teams that are not afraid to get their hands dirty in order to claim some points. In their qualifiers for the world cup, they made a very impressive run, conquering the 4th position with 27 goals for and 19 against. That also came with them gathering a total of 15 yellow and 1 red card in their last 6 qualifying games, showing their toughness as a team. The player to look out for is surely going to be Fenerbahce’s Enner Valencia who is in hot form, having scored a total of 12 times and given out 4 assists in the Turkish Premier League.
Group B: England, Iran, USA, Wales
Starting off Group B, we have a team that is struggling lately, yet has great potential altogether. That is no other than England, who completed the qualifiers for the World Cup with a stunning 39 goals for and 3 goals against. Despite that amazing form and despite being promoted as first from their respective group, that was not the case for this year’s Nations League, where England really struggled, not managing to win a single game from the 6 played and ultimately being relegated to Nations League group B. Much is expected from Harry Kane who has scored 14 times in total this year and is going to be the key player for England’s progression, not ruling out however England’s prodigies like Mason Mount, Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham, etc.
Next on there is the USA. In their run for the World Cup, they qualified as 3rd from the North and Central America group, being a team that scored and conceded a fair amount of goals (21-10). In their 11th world cup appearance, the American national team is hoping to make a good run, though they are viewed as outsiders to go far in the tournament. The team’s star player is no other than Chelsea’s winger Christian Pulisic, on whom they are going to be relying to create and convert chances despite the lack of form in his recent games.
The third team for group B is going to be Wales. A very solid team that mainly emphasizes the defensive side of the game and hits on counterattacks, Wales claimed the second position in their respective group with a solid record of 14 goals for and 9 against. They have proven to be rather tough losing only once to Belgium, drawing three times, and winning four times. In the promotion games for the teams placed 2nd, they managed to win versus Austria 2-1 and Ukraine 1-0 and claim their world cup ticket. Though viewed as an outsider, the Wales national team has proven to be very dangerous on the counterattacks and should not be underestimated. Their star player is no other than Gareth Bale who after a brief passage from Tottenham joined the MLS and Los Angeles, having scored thrice so far.
Last but not least, group B concludes with Iran. Again, a team that is based on defense, Iran completed the last world cup qualification stage with a very concrete record of 15 goals for and 4 against. In a group with England, Wales, and the USA, Iran is accepted by most as an outsider to move on to the next phase, and rightfully so, since in their previous 6 world cup appearances they have not made it out of the group stage! The spotlight is going to be for the most part on Porto’s attacker Mehdi Taremi who is enjoying a great season so far, scoring 13 times across all competitions.
On the next article, we will take a look at the remaining two groups, as well as analyze the teams in them.
References
- FIFA World Cup schedule 2022: complete match dates, times, team fixtures for Qatar tournament. sportingnews.com. Available here
- World Cup 2022 winner odds: Favourites, contenders & outsiders to win Qatar tournament. goal.com. Available here
