The first ever Winter World Cup!
The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the strangest ever, with the event being planned between 21st of November and 18th of December. The Qatar 2022 tournament is the 22nd edition, marking up some interesting facts that will be written in the Football's History Book!
Qatar 2022 will be the first Football World Cup organized in the Arab world, and only the second held in Asia. The previous Asian edition took place in 2002, when South Korea and Japan co-hosted the event. It is the last World Cup with 32 participating teams, with the number to be increased to 48 for the 2026 tournament in United States, Canada and Mexico. Due to Qatar's summer heat, the World Cup will be held in the winter, and reduced to only 28 days.
France must defend the crown, a mission that will be challenging if we consider how well Brazil, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Germany and England played in the qualifying stage. Serbia, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, Holland, France, Croatia, Germany and England won their groups and were rewarded with a spring break. The biggest upsets where caused by Serbia and Switzerland, the teams that sent Portugal and Italy in the play-off.
England showed strength, but probably 2022 will be another year when it's not "coming home!" Group J was the one I was directly interested, hoping that Romania will somehow be better than North Macedonia, Armenia or Iceland. It was another failed campaign for my country, as they failed to grab the second place and finished one point behind Pandev's team. The guy is a football legend and with his retirement, Macedonia losses their top man.
Playing against small countries make decent strikers look outstanding. Depay and Harry Kane finished on the top of the board, with 12 goals, while the best striker in the world finished third. Robert Lewandowski shared the position with Zahavi and Mitrovic. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 6 times, the same numbers of goals as Dabbur, Grizzemann and Pukki!
Depay and Kane scored 12 goals each, while the whole Romanian team scored 13. If we could give the top goal scorer title to players who scored only two goals, then Ianis Hagi (Rangers), Cicaldau (Galatasaray) and Man (Parma) will get the award.
I said above that Switzerland and Serbia created the biggest upsets of the qualifying rounds, as one of Portugal or Italy will not reach Qatar. They will play in the final of Path C, if they beat Turkey and North Macedonia. Path A is open for any team, with Wales, Austria, Scotland and Ukraine fighting for the World Cup tickets. Russia, Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic will go all-in to book the last flight that goes to Doha!
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