2022 World Cup Groups, Match Schedule Fully Set After Costa Rica Completes Field
World Cup 2022: Full 32-team field, groups, game schedule in Qatar - Sports Illustrated Skip to main content
The 32 teams taking part in World Cup revealed… but who has toughest group based on ranking and where do England sit?
AS England were being annihilated by Hungary, there was a much more important match being played across the globe. While Gareth Southgate's tired squad were ripped apart in Wolverhampton, Costa Rica were battling past New Zealand in Saudi Arabia. England have the toughest World Cup group with an averaging Fifa ranking of 14.75 With their 1-0 win, the Central Americans snatched the 32nd and final spot in the 2022 World Cup. Now, finally, the full lineup for this winter's tournament is complete. And England have the HARDEST group, according to the world rankings. The Three Lions are ranked fifth in the world, with USA (15th), Wales (18th) and Iran (21st) not far behind. That means Group B has an average ranking of 14.75 - far and away the toughest in the tournament. The nearest contenders for the Group of Death moniker is Group E - featuring Spain (7th), Germany (12th), Japan (23rd) and Costa Rica (31st), with a mean ranking of 18.25, At the other end of the scale, Group A is comfortably the easiest. Hosts Qatar were among the top seeds for the tournament as hosts - but thanks to their world ranking of 51, that skews the entire group. FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS - BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS The Middle Eastern nation are joined by Holland (10th), Senegal (20th) and Ecuador (46th) for an average ranking of just 31.75. Group H also looks to be a doddle for the big-boys, with a mean ranking of 27.5. Portugal (8th) and Uruguay (13th) look dead-certs to qualify, with South Korea (29th) and Ghana (60th) miles back in the Fifa standings. England would ordinarily be expected to storm through the group on the back of reaching the 2018 World Cup semis and the Euro 2020 final just last summer. But on the back of a dreadful fortnight, the Three Lions have gone from being considered one of the favourites in Qatar to looking worryingly out of form. Southgate heavily rotated his squad across the four games - which included two defeats to Hungary and draws against Germany and Italy. But boasting a near-fully-fit squad, there are understandably concerns among fans. England sit dead-last in their Nations League group with their final two matches coming in September. The Three Lions travel to Italy before hosting Germany in their final games before the World Cup starts in November. The two games will be a fairer reflection of where Southgate and Co stand ahead of the tournament, with the players fully focused on the season, rather than with one eye on the beach after a gruelling 2021-22.
2022 World Cup: 32-team finals line-up completed
Costa Rica beat New Zealand 1-0 in the final intercontinental playoff to complete the 32 finalists who will play in this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar. In Doha, Los Ticos took the early lead they sustained until the final whistle when Campbell scored after three minutes. The former Arsenal player, now with Monterrey in Mexico, converted a cross after great work from the teenager, Jewison Bennette, down the left flank. New Zealand fought back and had much of the pressure in the first half. Chris Wood, the Newcastle striker, had the ball in the net in the 39th minute, only for VAR to overrule an equaliser after a foul in the buildup. The check found that Matthew Garbett had fouled Óscar Duarte. A match that often threatened to boil over saw Luis Fernando Suárez, the Costa Rica coach, make three subs at half-time, including the introduction of the veteran captain, Bryan Ruiz, but New Zealand continued to create many more chances. WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS GROUP A Qatar Ecuador Senegal Netherlands GROUP B England Iran USA Wales GROUP C Argentina Saudi Arabia Mexico Poland GROUP D France Denmark Tunisia Australia GROUP E Spain Germany Japan Costa Rica GROUP F Belgium Canada Morocco Croatia GROUP G Brazil Serbia Switzerland Cameroon GROUP H Portugal Ghana Uruguay South Korea But their hopes were seriously damaged when Kosta Barbarouses, the second-half sub brought on by New Zealand manager Danny Hay, lasted barely eight minutes before being dismissed for a studs-up foul on Francisco Calvo. A VAR check saw his yellow card converted to red. With Barbarouses appeared to go the All Whites’ hopes of playing at a third successive World Cup finals. Instead, it will be Costa Rica’s fans, who made much of the noise, who will be returning to Qatar in November. Their team was able to compete in its third successive finals, having reached the quarter-finals in 2014 and then gone out at the group stage in 2018. Keylor Navas, the Costa Rican goalkeeper made a fine save from Clayton Lewis’s long-range effort, and then a low shot from Wood in an increasingly tense last ten minutes where New Zealand were camped in the opposition half. Eventually, Costa Rica were able to celebrate victory and will take their place in Group E at the finals, drawn with Spain, Germany and Japan. The playoff between the fourth-placed team in the Concacaf region and the Oceania confederation winner, at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, brought the qualifying campaign to its end. - Guardian Service
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