With the 2022 Qatar World Cup looming closer the question on everyone’s mind is which country will come out victorious in the biggest sporting competition in the world. The three favorites to win the trophy heading into Qatar are Brazil, France and Argentina.
Brazil is the most successful country in World Cup history with an astonishing 5 World Cup victories. With an in- form Neymar, Vinicius Junior and Gabriel Jesus, Brazil has an abundance of strong attacking players.
After being interviewed on who he supported for the World Cup, Coach Khenti commented “ I must say I’m really excited to see Brazil play, there’s a lot of guys on that team that I’ve seen come from their own Brazilian cities and now they’re playing in the top leagues like the Premier League, the Bundesliga”.
Another factor that could suggest Brazil will come out triumphant is that Brazil has won 7 of their last 8 games heading into the World Cup which is a great sign of the national team's ability to consistently win matches. On the other hand, the statistics are not favoring South American nations because they have not won the World Cup since 2002. But, the odds heading into the World Cup have Brazil as the favorites with +400.
France on the other hand, is looking to be only the third nation in the history of the tournament to win back to back World Cups. But, injuries to three of their key players Karim Benzema, N'golo Kante and Paul Pogba will likely damage their chances. On the other hand their attack is extremely frightening, with Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, who are destined to threaten any defense in the tournament.
When asked who he supported, 11th Grader, Nile Mpela said “France all the way”.
France’s current success has not been very consistent with only 3 wins from their last 8 matches. The two time World Cup winners are favored at +600 to win back to back World Cups.
Moving on to the third and final favorite of the tournament, Argentina, who has one of the best players of all time in Lionel Messi. Messi is trying to captain his side to victory in what is likely his final World Cup and cement his legacy with the one trophy that has always evaded him.
11th Grader Mateo Torralba commented that ”I’m going to go for Argentina because I want Messi to win, he’s the greatest of all time and I think Argentina has a great possibility of winning”.
Even though Messi is a magnificent and influential player, the squad around him is not as strong as the other nations in the World Cup and Lionel Messi has struggled to lead his nation to glory on the greatest stage. But, Argentina have a 35 match unbeaten streak, which is an astonishing record that makes Argentina the most successful National team heading into the World Cup. Argentina who are favored only slightly behind France at +650 are hoping to win the World Cup for the third time since they were successful in 1978 and 1986.
A team that is going under the radar and who is very underrated in the odds to win the World Cup, is Portugal. Portugal has an abundance of players in the best teams in the world some notable names include Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias, Joao Felix, Joao Cancelo, Raphael Leao and Renato Sanches. In the betting odds, Portugal are the ninth favorite to win the trophy but on paper their squad is up there with strongest nations such as Brazil and France. Portugal has also had solid success leading into the World Cup with 6 wins from their last 9 matches. But, Portugal are still extreme underdogs for the quality of their squad and current form only favored in at +1200.
But, this World Cup is extremely unpredictable and any nation with a bit of luck can come out victorious. It is anyone’s guess who will come out on top at the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup.