On Sunday, Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts, will kick off the competition against Ecuador. The previous time these two teams faced off, it was a 7-goal thriller that went 4-3 in favor of The Maroon, thus the hosts will be anxious to start victorious in their first-ever FIFA World Cup appearances.
Qatar to Win
To keep their fans interested in the tournament, it is frequently claimed that the host nation must get off to a strong start and get past the group stage. Qatar will have a great chance to achieve just that when they play Ecuador in the opening match of the 2022 World Cup. In a friendly match between these two sides in Doha in 2018, Qatar prevailed 4-3. The 25-year-old Akram Afif should start the opening 2022 World Cup match against La Tri after scoring a hat trick on that particular day.
1-0 to Qatar
We anticipate that this game will follow the tradition of tight, edgy World Cup openers. According to the oddsmakers, Ecuador is the favorite to win the match, but we think that Qatar will have the upper hand over their South American opponents and win 1-0. Except for Enner Valencia and Alexander Dominguez, Qatar’s team has many players with extensive international experience who has played together for a long time. In contrast, Ecuador’s team lacks goal threats in the middle of the field and has few players with significant international experience.
Will Hosts initiate the winning start!
Qatar: This weekend, the hosts’ starting goalkeeper appears to be Saad Al Sheeb. The 32-year-old goalie, who has 76 caps to his name, currently competes for Qatar alongside the rest of his team. Abdelkarim Hassan and Boualem Khoukhi, two defenders with over 100 national team appearances each, will bring a wealth of experience to the back line. The only uncapped player to be called up is Jassem Gaber, who will likely not make the starting eleven at age 20 but will gain valuable experience by taking part in the World Cup.
With nearly 100 caps for Qatar between them, Karim Boudiaf and Abdulaziz Hatem are both 32 years old, but Ali Assadalla, who has 12 goals in 59 appearances, provides the most offensive threat in the Qatari midfield. The Qatari offense has a lot of ambitions. Almoez Ali, who has scored 42 goals in 85 national team games, is the guy to watch out for, while captain Hassan Al-Haydos, 31, has scored 36 goals in 169 games.
Ecuador: As of November 14th, Ecuador has not yet revealed its 26-man World Cup roster, but we anticipate that they will be a formidable opponent. On paper, Ecuador’s greatest problem is scoring goals. The only player recently called up who has double-digit international goals is 33-year-old Enner Valencia.
The former Everton and West Ham player has scored 35 goals in 74 appearances, with Michael Estrada coming in second with 8 goals in 35 games and Angel Mena coming in third with 46 appearances and 7 goals. It appears that Valencia will face a lot of pressure in Qatar to take the initiative, and the defense will need to keep as many shutouts as they can if Ecuador is to have any hope of moving on to the knockout round.
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