[PART 1]

So, as the QATAR 2022 World Cup is just about a month and a few days to go, I thought to do brief team profiling of the 32 teams that qualified for the QATAR 2022 World Cup competition. With the kickoff and opening ceremony scheduled to hold on the 20th of November, all Club football is expected to be on hold at least 1 week before that day to allow players to return to their national camps ahead of the competition. Without further talks, let's get it 💪

GROUP A TEAMS

QATAR
Ranked 48th by FIFA, the Maroons, as they are nicknamed, have all their players playing club football in the Qatar Stars League, the top-level football league in Qatar. They have not registered a World Cup appearance except for this one, which automatically qualified for being the host nation, making them one of the 5 Asian nations that qualified. Although they have featured in and won some international competitions such as the Arabian Gulf Cup (Champions in 1992, 2004, and 2014) and the Asian Cup (Champions in 2019), their successful sailing beyond the group stage is a thing to ponder upon given the caliber of teams they are to contend with in the group stage.

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ECUADOR
Ranked 44th by FIFA, La Tri has only 14% of the squad playing club football in Ecuador. The rest play for clubs in top-tier leagues in Ecuador, Mexico, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Argentina, Turkey, Spain, and England. They have had only 4 World Cup appearances since 2002 and have not proceeded beyond the group stage in any of these appearances. Without a record of any recent big wins, they will be faced with a big challenge and will do a lot to sail to the round of 16. They are one of the 5 South American nations to participate in the competition.

SENEGAL
Ranked 18th by FIFA, the Lions of Teranga and the defending champions of Africa have a squad packed with top players like Bayern Muchen’s Sadio Mane, Chelsea’s Kalidou Koulibaly, RB Leipzig’s Abdou Diallo, Everton’s Idrissa Gueye, Watford’s Ismaila Sarr amongst others. They first featured in the World Cup in 2002 where they amazingly progressed to the quarter-final stage, the first African team to ever do so. They subsequently met brick walls in qualifying for the competition until 2018, when they were swept out of the competition in the group stage. Being one of the 5 African nations to qualify for the competition, they are one of the favorites to scale through to the next stage of the competition.

NETHERLANDS
Ranked 8th by FIFA, the Flying Dutchmen pride themselves as the most successful team in this group. They were the 1st runner-up in the 2010 South Africa World Cup competition, losing out to Spain in the finals. They were also 1st runner-up in the 1974 and 1978 editions. They have top players like Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, Man. City’s Nathan Ake, Man. United’s Tyrell Malacia, Barcelona’s Frankie de Jong and Memphis Depay, Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt, Ajax’s Daley Blind, and Steven Bergwijn. About 44% of the squad plays club football in Eredivisie, the top division of club football in the Netherlands. It was not a big issue for them to qualify alongside the 13 other European nations. It shouldn't also be an issue to scale through to the round of 16, hopefully.

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GROUP B TEAMS

ENGLAND
Ranked 5th by FIFA, the Three Lions came close to winning the Euro 2020 after losing to Italy in a penalty shootout. The 1966 World cup champions have not been able to renew this title in recent times and the closest they have come to it was 4th place in 2018 after losing to Croatia in the semi-final fixture. All the players play club football in various teams in the English premier league, except the likes of AS Roma’s Tammy Abraham, Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham, and AC Milan’s Fikayo Tomori. Being the most successful team in this group, they should be safe to the round of 16 at least, unless, of course, they decide to play otherwise.

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IRAN
The Iranian Cheetahs, who were winners of the Asian Cup in 1968, 1972, and 1976, pride themselves as one of the most successful Asian national teams alongside Saudi Arabia. They sit in the 20th position in the world by FIFA ranking. In the squad are a few top players like Omonia’s Karim Ansarifard and Brentford’s Saman Ghoddos. Without any success beyond the group stage of the world cup competition, we can only hope they qualify for the next round given the statistics of the teams in the same group as they are.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The defending Champions of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and 7 times holder of the title are currently ranked 16th by FIFA. The Yanks are also the 1st and current title holder of the CONCACAF National League which was Founded in 2018. Despite all these, they have not been so successful in the world as their best result in recent times was in the Korea-Japan 2002 world cup where they scaled through to the Quarter-final stage of the competition. Popular players like Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic, AC Milan’s Sergino Dest, Juventus’ Weston Mckennie, and Dortmund’s Giovanni Reyna make this team a likely competition for other teams in the group. Also, good to note is that they alongside Canada and Mexico will be hosting the 2026 World Cup and are coincidentally the only North American nations to qualify for the competition.

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WALES
The dragons haven’t featured in many international football competitions. Being a quarter-finalist in the 1958 World Cup and holding a 3rd place title in the 2016 Euro Championship, they are ranked 19th in the world by FIFA. They have players like Gareth Bale, Daniel James, and Ben Davies and we will have to keep our fingers crossed to see how they will fight for a spot in the round of 16.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??!!

TYPE IN YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE;

• TOP 2 TEAMS TO EMERGE FROM EACH GROUP
• THE TEAMS TO MEET IN THE FINAL
• THE TEAM TO WIN

MAY THE BEST TEAM WIN✌️

Pictures credited accordingly