For the first time in tournament history, the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be hosted in the Middle East, and everything is almost ready for what promises to be a spectacular event in Qatar. Beyond the Olympic Games, this is the biggest global sporting event in existence.
2022 will also be the first time a World Cup has taken place towards the end of a calendar years, after scheduling was changed to avoid the desert heat of the region. Nevertheless, excitement and enthusiasm is already building, fans are preparing their trips to Qatar, while those who remain at home can expect to enjoy plenty of TV and online streaming coverage.
Everywhere from the beautiful southern Pacific island of Vanatu, to the culturally rich Asian country of Vietnam, football fans will undoubtedly be attempting to predict results throughout the tournament. Speaking of which, Asiabet has produced an extensive guide highlighting where to find the best World Cup betting sites in 2022, with expert analysis provided in Vietnamese and all the main Asian languages. Handy to know if seeking the latest odds and promotions.
But which of the 32 competing national teams are tipped to lift the famous golden trophy? Winning the 2022 World Cup will be far from easy, although leading bookmakers around the globe are already making their outright favourite predictions.
Brazil – Seleção Canarinho
Much more than just being favourites to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the constant depth and strength of talent from Brazil makes them habitual favourites, particularly having won the tournament five times in the past. In fact, Brazil is the only country to have appeared in all 22 World Cup tournaments, including the event later this year.
In addition, no team has reached the final more times, given that aside from lifting the trophy on five occasions, they were also the runners-up at the 1950 and 1998 tournaments. Likewise, no team has reached the semi-finals more times than Brazil, just to underline the powerful expectations of this mighty football superpower.
Unsurprisingly, practically every bookmaker around the globe is backing Brazil as 2022 favourites, which also matches the consistently high expectations their fans will also share. However, it’s also important to note that Brazil hasn’t reached a World Cup final since 2002, when they beat Germany at the tournament co-hosted in Japan and South Korea.
France – Les Bleus
As the reigning 2018 FIFA World Cup champions, France was inevitably going to feature amongst the 2022 tournament favourites, led by the same head coach Didier Deschamps and featuring many familiar faces in their national team. There are also plenty of exciting new young talents, bolstering the ranks of an already marvellously gifted squad.
France has always boasted a fine array of exceptional players, yet only in the last couple of decades or so has their potential been realised on the global stage. Since first winning the World Cup tournament the country hosted in 1998, the French reached the final in 2006 and finished as runners-up to Italy, before the most recent triumph at Russia 2018.
If any team is capable of making it all the way to the final in 2022, then showing enough composure and resilience to lift the trophy, then it has to be France and their current generation of exciting players. But ambitious expectations must come without any complacency, due to the Gallic nation also having suffered surprising humiliations. At the 2002 and 2010 tournaments, they didn’t even make it beyond the group stage.
England – The Three Lions
You know there’s a World Cup on the horizon when the traditional hype begins in England, frequently accompanied by “Football’s Coming Home” being played on the radio. The song itself, now a popular chant by English fans ahead of major tournaments, was originally recorded in a collaboration between comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, with rock band the Lightning Seeds, just ahead of the 1996 European Championship.
Since then, the song has become the anthem for the constantly high expectations and inevitable disappointments, whenever the England national team has prepared for and then returned from tournaments empty-handed. Indeed, the last time the Three Lions lifted the World Cup trophy was way back in 1966, which could be quite significant for the superstitious.
This is because 1966 was last time a tournament was hosted in a year ending with double digits, just as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be. That being said, there is genuinely more to England’s odds this year than any superstitions or misplaced delusions of grandeur, as the country which invented the modern game. They actually have a very strong squad, one built upon teamwork, underpinned by defensive solidity and potent attacking.
