The 2022 World Cup is underway and on Monday, the real action begins for the home nations as England and Wales are both in action, against Iran and USA respectively. Here’s the latest news from Qatar, after the hosts lost their opening game.
Hosts Qatar battered in opener
Qatar were taken apart by Ecuador in their opener, as they fell to a 2-0 defeat. Former West Ham striker Enner Valencia scored twice, the second a superb header, but the real story came from those in the stands.
At half-time, 2-0 down, half of the home fans seemingly deserted their team, leaving thousands of empty seats in the 60,000 capacity stadium. The atmosphere for that second period was certainly strange, as the two teams played out a frankly awful half of football.
READ MORE:
- Qatar 0-2 Ecuador: Hosts have a nightmare in Doha
- Gary Lineker and co. nail World Cup opening
- Betfred World Cup odds*
This wasn’t the celebration the hosts had hoped for. But instead a sobering match that brought Qatar back to earth with a bang. As our review of the match concluded:
“Money can buy you many things. It can buy you the right to host a World Cup. It can buy you a place in said World Cup. It can buy you several brand spanking new stadiums to play in. But it can’t buy you happiness. Or fans. And as it turns out, it can’t buy you a decent international football team either.”
James Maddison and Kyle Walker Out Of England’s Opener
England’s James Maddison was the centre of attention as he was called up to the World Cup squad, but it looks certain that he will miss the Three Lions opener with Iran. He has missed training for three consecutive days in the build-up to this one, still struggling with the injury that saw him taken off in Leicester’s last Premier League game.
He will now be one of the three names that Gareth Southgate leaves out of the matchday squad vs Iran, but Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips have both trained in the build-up to this one. There was so much excitement around Leicester’s number ten, that it would be a real disappointment if injury was to hamper his potential World Cup gametime.
Despite training, Southgate has confirmed that Kyle Walker is likely to miss this first match, even though he is ahead of schedule as far as the England manager is concerned.
Gareth Bale eyes up history
Wales kick off their first World Cup campaign in 64 years on Monday night against the USA and their main man Gareth Bale is ready to make history for his country.
"It's probably the biggest honour we could have for our country, qualifying for a World Cup, something we haven't done in 64 years," said Bale.
"It's history in our country. Schools are going to stop to watch our games. Kids are going to miss school, fortunately for them. It's a massive piece of history in our country and something we have all wanted for a long time.
"We have the support of the nation back home, no matter what happens, as long as we give 100% our country will love us for that."
Meanwhile English-born striker Kieffer Moore caused a bit of a stir when he said “it would be amazing” to put England out of the tournament in Qatar. The rivals meet in the final group game next Tuesday.
Gareth Bale gives an update on his fitness ahead of Wales' first World Cup game against the USA 🏴
England to make a statement
Captain Harry Kane plans to wear a ‘one love’ armband in England’s game vs Iran, although the FA fear he could be stripped of it in the dressing room ahead of the game.
“We’ve made it clear as a team, and a staff and an organisation that we want to wear the armband. I know the FA are talking to FIFA at the moment, I’m sure by gametime tomorrow I think we will have our answer. Yeah, I think we’ve made it clear that we want to wear it.”
FIFA aren’t happy with this suggestion, so we will see what happens ahead of kick-off. But what England will do is take the knee, opposing all forms of racism and discrimination. "It's what we stand for as a team and have done for a long period of time," said Southgate.
"We feel this is the biggest and we think it's a strong statement that will go around the world for young people, in particular, to see that inclusivity is very important."
Louis van Gaal believes Dutch are better than 2014
The Netherlands also begin their World Cup campaign on Monday as they take on AFCON champions Senegal - who will be without Sadio Mane. But manager Louis van Gaal, who will retire after this tournament, has big hopes for his squad.
"In 2014 we came third with a squad that was of lesser quality than this one, and with this group I expect more. It depends not only on technical skills and tactical skills, but it also depends on a bit of luck, that you score at the right time and that the others don't score," he said.
"I think that we could become world champion, but there are squads that, in my view, are at a higher level than my squad ... so I'm saying we can become a world champion. Whether we become world champion is another thing, but we can."
There’s also a huge amount of excitement around Cody Gakpo, who is set to start in the absence of Memphis Depay. He has 27 goals and assists in 19 club games this season for PSV and could set this tournament alight.
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