Qatar v Ecuador - Sun 20th Nov, 16:00 | Group A | World Cup 2022

Match Result Prediction

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MCFC1993

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Live on BBC from 15:00 (GMT). Hosted by Gary Lineker. Punditry from Alan Shearer and Alex Scott. Commentary from Steve Bower and Dion Dublin.

Hardly a cracker to get us started but sometimes the opening game can throw up a shock. Senegal in 2002 and South Africa's fast start in 2010 spring to mind.


Qatar
Qatar are one of 2 countries where all of their players play in their domestic league:
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This is their first World Cup qualifying by way of being the hosts. They have played a ridiculous amount of games in preparation for this tournament, 21 games since the end of March. They suspended their domestic league in September to focus on preparing for the World Cup. Based on their results they might actually not be that bad:
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Ecuador
Ecuador were the next best team after Brazil and Argentina for most of South American qualifying. They tailed off towards the end and went through as the 4th automatic team.
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Their top goalscorer in qualifying was Michael Estrada who plays for Cruz Azul in Mexico. They have a couple of familiar faces to Premier League fans; Pervis Estupiañán and Moisés Caicedo who are both doing decent at Brighton and Enner Valencia who was previously at West Ham.

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Their recent results suggest a defence first approach. So I’m not expecting goals in this opening game.
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Most people will have Ecuador and Senegal fighting for 2nd place in this group but I wouldn't be surprised to see some dodgy antics going for Qatar.
 
Qatar in 2019 were very good. They won Asia's equivalent of the Euro's, beating Japan and South Korea along the way, infact they won every game in 90 minutes. They also competed in the Copa America of that year and were quite respectable, got a draw against Paraguay and only lost 1-0 to Argentina and Colombia. Since then, they've stagnated a little bit, not a lot of depth in their squad and no new faces to challenge and keep the starting 11 on their toes. A bit like Iceland post Euro 2016. Their coach, Felix Sanchez was at Barcelona's academy and you can see the influence on their team. If they can recapture their 2019 form, they have an outside chance.
 
kippaxwarrior said:
Let's me honest Dublin will talk for 90 minutes about the stairs......
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Well done on the research MCFC1993. I very much doubt Scott and Shearer will have bothered even though that's what they are paid for.
I assume Scott will be talking about LGBT at some point and Shearer will be saying if Lennon was guy, he would not have booked him jn the head
 
Pell said:
Qatar in 2019 were very good. They won Asia's equivalent of the Euro's, beating Japan and South Korea along the way, infact they won every game in 90 minutes. They also competed in the Copa America of that year and were quite respectable, got a draw against Paraguay and only lost 1-0 to Argentina and Colombia. Since then, they've stagnated a little bit, not a lot of depth in their squad and no new faces to challenge and keep the starting 11 on their toes. A bit like Iceland post Euro 2016. Their coach, Felix Sanchez was at Barcelona's academy and you can see the influence on their team. If they can recapture their 2019 form, they have an outside chance.
Click to expand...

Worth noting that 13 of their players play for Al Sadd, where Xavi was in charge from 2019-2021 followed by Juanma Lillo, who left City after 2 years of being Pep's assistant.

I have a feeling those appointments were very much for the national team.
 
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