Qatar 2022: Taking A Critical Look At All Groups And Each Team’s Chances.

The 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup is around the corner, with this year’s edition slated to be the first edition in the history of the tournament to be hosted by an Arabian country – Qatar.
Thirty-two countries qualified for this year’s World Cup showdown, and the countries were
grouped into eight groups A-H on the 1st of April, 2022.
The groups and their participants are:
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal and Netherlands.
Group B: England, IR Iran, USA and Wales.
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland.
Group D: France, Australia, Denmark and Tunisia.
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany and Japan.
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco and Croatia.
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon.
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay and Korea Republic.
Starting from November 21, all eyes will be on the biggest football competition in the world with
the tournament set to open from Group A as the host nation Qatar will play Ecuador at the Al
Bayt Stadium, Qatar.
Group A Assessment.
In Group A, Qatar who’ll be hosting the rest of the world will play Ecuador, the Netherlands and
current African champions Senegal, in no particular order.
Senegal: Senegal also known as the Lions of Teranga are currently the number one team in
Africa having won their first ever African Cup Of Nations in Cameroon, under the tutelage of
their legend & Coach Aliou Cisse – earlier this year.
The West African country with its current crop of players is experiencing a resurgence lately, as
they’ve gotten themselves away under the shadows of their other African counterparts,
outshining their antecedents.
That being said, just like other African countries, Senegal’s performance on the world stage
hitherto has been void of a medal ever since they made their debut in the competition in 2002.
Although, they are the second African team to make it to the quarter-finals behind Cameroon, in
which they lost to Turkey.
Qatar: Apart from being a one-time winner of the Asian Cup in 2019, and also the host of this
year’s World Cup, Qatar can well be likened to a team undergoing rapid football development.
Hitherto, Qatar has never qualified for any FIFA World Cup, and they’ll be making their debut in
this year’s edition on home soil.
Ecuador: Though a little better than Qatar, Ecuador has also been one of the struggling
footballing nations in South America. Although they’ve been putting their house together in
recent times.
Ecuador made their debut in the World Cup in 2002, and they’ve gone on to feature 4 times,
with their best result in 2006 when they made it to the round of sixteen.
Netherlands: The Dutch national team is undoubtedly the biggest footballing nation in this
group. And they also have a rich history in the World Cup with 10 appearances since making
their debut in the competition in 1934.
Holland also holds the record for playing the most World Cup finals without ever winning the
tournament. They have also appeared in ten UEFA European Championship(now known as the
Euros) winning the 1988 tournament in West Germany.
After All Three Matches, Which Team Will Qualify For The Round Of 16?
Having highlighted the pertinent records of each team in Group A, undoubtedly, the Netherlands
should qualify for the next stage ahead of all other countries.
They failed to qualify for the last FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia in 2018 and having qualified
for this edition, anything short of making the quarter-final will be a bad outing for the European
country.
The second team that has the quality of following the Netherlands out of this group is Senegal.
Their squad led by Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane and captained by Chelsea’s Kalidou Koulibaly
is the best technical team in Africa and it has shown in their recent performances.
Apart from winning the last edition of the African Cup of Nations, Senegal faced Egypt twice in
the World Cup qualification matches, and they eliminated Mohammad Salah led Egyptians on
penalties after being tied 1–1 on aggregate, to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
They’ve also got the firepower to make it out of Group A with the Netherlands.
The minions of this group are Qatar and Ecuador. For Ecuador, making it out of this group isn’t
feasible & most likely not going to happen. And for Qatar, they could probably benefit from their
home advantage and get the needed support from their fans to spur them to churn out a result
that’ll see them qualify as one of the best third-placed teams in some groups.
Without mincing words, the clear favourites to make it unscathed out of this group are the
Netherlands and Senegal.