My 2022 World Cup Group Stage Predictions: What do you think?

Australia would have to draw 0-0 in all three group matches to advance, because I don't see where a goal is coming from.

 

Penalties and free kicks. If we don't get any of those then I don't see where a goal is coming from either.

 

Maybe I'm underestimating Tunisia, but I don't remember them doing anything noteworthy in any of the previous world cups or last AFCON, so I'm putting Australia above them (even with their current bad form).

 

Group A
Netherlands
Senegal

Group B
England
Iran

Group C
Argentina
Poland

Group D
France
Denmark

Group E
Germany
Japan

Group F
Belgium
Croatia

Group G
Brazil
Serbia

Group H
Portugal
Uruguay

 

I don't remember them doing anything of note since the 1978 World Cup. And I wasn't even born then...

They literally qualified by getting the easiest draw in both the group phase and the knockouts, finally advancing thanks to a freak own goal over two legs (in which they spent most of the two matches feigning injury)...

 

People shouldn't be so dismissive of Tunisia.
I have a funny feeling they might surprise big time this time.

I think there has just to be some Arab nation or Iran who puts on a show.

Morocco and Iran have their internal issues at the moment. Tunisia look like a real unit to me. When you have the weakest Australian squad in a long time in your group and if you believe in the World Cup holders curse then there is reason for optimism for Tunisia.

 

Calling it a "curse" implies that its made-up BS. But there is really something to this so I would call it "WC hangover". However, when WC defending champs have struggled in the past it was aided by a tricky group, which isn't the case in 2022.

 

Only Spain and arguably Germany had difficult groups back then. Italy had a cake group and France also didn't have a particularly difficult group in 2002 (yes I know we were in that group, but we basically sucked from 1990-2009)

 

Italy group in 2010 definately wasn't tricky, frankly that was a cake group.

Germany in 2018 I wouldn't consider anything more than an average group.

 

We will see. I have my doubts but things are definately looking on the up for them.

Despite looking mediocre in African competitions they seem to look much better on the international stage without the harsh conditions.

Winning the Kirin Cup by dispatching Chile and Japan was impressive.

 

Fair point regarding Italy 2010. But I think I'm on solid ground in saying both France 2002 group and Germany 2018 group were much trickier than France's 2022 group.

To say Uruguay sucked is only true by normal standards perhaps. They still had several players in their prime playing for big clubs in 2002. We are comparing to a group that has both Tunisia and Australia!! And that Senegal team was young and many of their players would go on to play in the Premier League, some at big clubs. Safe to say that won't be the case with the 2022 Aussie side.

 

France's group in 2002 was not an easy group. Denmark and Uruguay were both reasonably good. Senegal was supposed to be the weak sister but went to the quarter-finals.

Italy's group in 2010 was a weak group I agree. But it wasn't a one-off, because as we know Italy has been in this weird decline since 2006.

Spain's group in 2014 was a group of death. Both Holland and Chile were elite teams. And even Australia wasn't that bad.

Germany in 2018 had quarter-finalist Sweden and perennial second-rounder Mexico. The South Korea match was just Germany not putting the ball in the net and getting hit on the counter in extra time. But yes, Germany should have gotten out of that group.

So looking at the pot three teams from each year, 2002 had Uruguay (and a good 4th team in Senegal), 2010 had Slovakia (poor), 2014 had strong Chile, and 2018 had Mexico or Sweden, take your pick. But France's group in 2022 will have Tunisia in pot 3, who let's face it, are really a pot 4 team.

Bottom line, the silly curse won't happen this year. I would give 10 to 1 odds that France gets out of the group.

 

I think people sometimes make assumptions of retroactive groups based on current form.

The 2002 France group was a cake group by 2002 standards. Denmark was not playing good at all in 2000-2002 era, they were also grouped with France in the 2000 euro, where they were anhiliated 3-0 by them and lost the three group stage matches. Similarly, we (Uruguay) weren't reasonably good in 2002, in fact we were in crisis mode for like 20 years until Tabárez came in.

Our 2010 run was unexpected after we barely beat Costa Rica in the play-off. If you told me pre-tournament that we were going to make it to the semifinals, I would have asked you what the heck did you smoke.

 

Absolute nonsense.

Only one group was clearly stronger

Argentina
England
Nigeria
Sweden

2 groups similar

Italy
Croatia
Mexico
Ecuador

USA
Poland
Portugal
S. Korea

Other than that the France group was clearly stronger than the rest.

Frankly I'd rank Frances group as #2 in 2002.

 

Denmark made the WC quarter-finals in 1998. They won their group in WC 2002, and were a Euro quarter-finalist in 2004. You focused on their one bad year at Euro 2000, but they were truly in a group of terror that year, with the champions France, the hosts and semi-finalists Holland (who totally dominated Italy in the semi-final but lost on PKs), and a Czech team that was also pretty talented in those days, with Petr Cech, Jan Koller, Pavel Nedved and Milan Baros, among others.

So I think you're being unfair to Denmark. They were better than you suggest.

 

Yes he is being unfair to Denmark.

Also Senegal was the best African team that year despite losing the Afcon to Cameroon on penalties.

And France was defending champs despite missing Zidane.

He is sour because Uruguay wasn't good enough to qualify from that group so he has to pretend they were a horrible aberration.

That is just a lie. They were good enough to draw both Senegal and France. Good enough to beat Australia's golden generation in the intercontinental playoff, and despite finishing 5th in Conmebol qualifying, they were only 3 points behind Brazil who would go on to win the whole thing.

Yeah dude is just bitter. Cake group my ass. Easily 2nd toughest group that year IMO.

 

That uruguayan team from 2002 wasn't much less than the one from 2010 in terms of individual quality.
They had most players from succesful 1997 u20, prime Recoba, prime Montero and Forlan though he still wasn't the great player he became later.

 

The 2002 Uruguayan team had the talent, but it was basically a cabaret, and I’m being nice. The team was completely divided. The “old guard” commanded by Paolo Montero had the run of the team, they did whatever they pleased, including booze and women in the hotels. In their defense I have to say they had no support from the AUF. The Europe based players had to pay their own way if they wanted to fly first class. The new generation led by Diego Forlán was trying to introduce a new way: professionalism. Tabarez later made it a reality, using Forlán as their role model.
Rumors of fighting during practices and in the locker rooms were flying around, including a big one between Montero and Forlán.
All in all the team was a disaster, Forlán sitting on the bench, with all Uruguayan fans clamoring for his presence in the field. We got to the third game needing a win against Senegal. First half the Senegalese did whatever they wanted, 3-0 up. On their way out to the locker room, one of them(I think it was Diouf, a “Neymar” type of player before Neymar)) starts juggling the ball right in front of the Uruguayan players who reacted and went after him. That united the team in anger somehow. Púa, the coach, finally sends Forlán in for the first time, and they ran over Senegal in the second half ending on a 3-3 tie.
One thing I have to say about that team is that what happened in those locker rooms stayed “in the locker room” as they say, nobody ever told anything about it, that I know of.

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think you're confusing the post 2004 Denmark team with the pre 2004 one. 2004 marked the end of a 20 year golden period in Danish football and it pretty much went downhill from there with increasingly more embarrassing performances and results that lasted up until Morten Olsen was sacked in 2015.

Denmark's Fifa rank in 2003 was 8th place (better than the current one) and the individual quality of the players was arguably on pair if not slightly better than today with players from Milan, Chelsea, Man City, Schalke, Barca etc.

 

They had individual quality players, but the team as a whole were less than the sum of their parts. Plus, as the other guy above explained, the 2002 team had locker room problems.

Yes, I think I did. I only looked up the last euro before the world cup, where they didn't do good, so I assumed that was the beginning of the 2004 era you mentioned.

 

This says it all wrt the comparison of France's 2002 group with their 2022 group.

The debate has gone off on a tangent but really it comes down to whether Uruguay 2002 is as good or better than Australia 2022, and if URU were already better than the Aussie's golden generation that ends the debate surely.

 

Goalkeepers: Mike Maignan (Milan), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham Hotspur), Alphonse Areola (West Ham).

Defenders: Lucas Digne (Aston Villa), Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munich), Théo Hernandez (Milan), Presnel Kimpembe (PSG), Jules Koundé (Barcelona), Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich), Raphaël Varane (Manchester United), Jonathan Clauss (Lens).

Midfielders: Ngolo Kanté (Chelsea), Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid), Paul Pogba (Juventus), Adrien Rabiot (Juventus), Aurélien Tchouaméni (Real Madrid)

Attackers: Wissam Ben Yedder (Monaco), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen), Christopher Nkunku (Leipzig), Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid), Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich).

If France were to bring 2 squads to the world cup, their 2nd squad would be one of the title contenders. It's the WC and anything can happen, but the chances of them not making through round 16 is extremely low - regardless of their opponents.

 

They will be fine as long as Pogba and Rabiot don't start.

 

As an aside, this conversation reminds me of the fact that Denmark has made the World Cup six times, and four of those times we had to play France in our WC group. Not fair! The only tandem I can think which beats that is Nigeria having Argentina in the same group five out of six times!

 

I wouldn't go that far. A lot of big names in there but some are well past their prime. The likes of Varane, Griezmann, Rabiot come to mind. Kante also coming off a poor season. Not sure if he's on the decline or just a one-off, but he's key.