Quote from: Boristhecat on October 15, 2022, 07:43:52 PM

Quote from: Daniel91 on October 15, 2022, 04:02:08 PM

I agree that in every world cup the hosts have a slight advantage, but personally I think Qatar is probably the weakest host ever in a world cup in terms of team quality and I don't expect them to make it to the knockout stages of the world cup.
The Netherlands is one of the favorites of this world championship, and Senegal, if I remember correctly, is the runner-up of Africa.
Senegal also have a good chance of reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup and perhaps equaling their greatest World Cup success, the quarter-finals at the 2002 World Cup.

If I am not mistaken in the history of the World Cup, there have been at most a couple of exceptions when the hosts of the tournament did not advance from the group to the next round of the competition. Qatar has every chance to add to the list of these exceptions, although given their strong corrupt "magic" with which they generally got the right to host the tournament, you can expect some surprises, haha.

I'm not completely sure, but as far as I know, at least in recent history, it has never happened that the host of the World Cup did not pass the group and not advance to the knockout stage of the competition.
However, due to the quality of their team, Qatar does not deserve to play in this World Cup and I believe that they have a minimal chance to pass the group and reach the knockout stage of the competition.
If they aren't the hosts, we certainly wouldn't be watching them at this world championship, just as we haven't seen them at previous world championships either.