The World Cup is the pinnacle of World sporting competitions, and the England Football team has all it takes to challenge for the title this year. At Euro 2020, the England Football team did their best and ended up being runners-up after a defeat in the finals against the boys from Italy.
The World Cup is arguably a much tougher competition, including as it does those world nations who are ineligible to compete at the Euros, and therefore offering those European teams a much stiffer test than ever before.
A simple mistake can cost the entire team, and failure to qualify from the Groups stage of this tournament would be seen as an outright catastrophe. However, in the last few months, The Three Lions’ general performance has been…..quite wanting, shall we say. Some selected players have been struggling and not performing at their best levels and there’s been a lot of criticism regarding the continued selection of out-of-form players.
In football, there’s a widely used phrase: ‘form is temporary, but class is permanent’. Gareth Southgate has tended to rely on the phrase perhaps a little too much when selecting his football team for a while now.
Good examples are Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw on their last call-up duty in the National League. Both, but particularly Maguire, are having a rough season at Manchester United. Maguire has failed to secure a position at the club level due to his performances at all this year, yet he was called for national duties. There are so many talented centre-backs, including the likes of Ben White of Arsenal, who is enjoying football at the club level, yet he cannot make it to be named in the 24 or 25-man squad for England.
We’re in the last few weeks of Premiership matches now before the break for the World Cup begins, so we are well and truly into the home stretch of speculation and anticipation. Southgate is required to sub,it an official preliminary list of 35-55 players to FIFA by Friday, October 21, and this list does not have to be made public. He’s then widely expected to announce the final England squad for the World Cup on November 10th this year – that’s just before the inal round of Premiership matches gets underway.
There’ll be no more arm-up matches then before the tournament, instead, we’ll be straight into the opening Group matches. For the duration of the tournament, the England team will be staying at the Souq Al Wakra hotel in Qatar later this year. The Souq Al Wakra hotel is alcohol-free and boasts a private beach, fitness centre and hydro pool as well as a spa and multiple restaurants. England will then train at the Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium for the duration of their World Cup stay.
England at the 2022 World Cup: Who will they face?
Group B
England v Iran – 4pm local/1pm UK – Mon 21/11
England v USA – 10pm local/7pm UK – Fri 25/11
Wales v England – 10pm local/7pm UK – Tue 29/11
If England finish 1st
Round of 16 – 10pm local/7pm UK – Sun 4/12 (potentially Ecuador or Senegal)
Quarter final – 10pm local/7pm UK – Sat 10/12 (potentially France or Argentina)
Semi final – 10pm local/7pm UK – Wed 14/12 (potentially Belgium, Germany, Portugal or Spain)
If England finish 2nd
Round of 16 – 6pm local/3pm UK – Sat 3/12 (potentially Netherlands)
Quarter final – 10pm local/7pm UK – Fri 9/12 (potentially Argentina or Denmark)
Semi final – 10pm local/7pm UK – Tue 13/12 (potentially Spain or Croatia)
Final
3rd place play off – 6pm local/3pm UK – Sat 17/12
Final – 6pm local/3pm UK – Sun 18/12
Written by Stephen Taylor, Propaganda CEO
