All roads in professional football will now lead to Qatar and the 2022 World Cup. With the finalization of the group stage in the Nations League, Europe’s elite football powerhouse countries have played their last competitive football matches prior to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Here are how things are looking for the continent of Europe that has delivered the previous 4 – winners of the sport’s largest team accomplishment. Spoiler alert: Things could be better for the major European contenders of the 2022 World Cup, and below is the reasoning why.
France
With France defending their latest World Cup championship title, they have won only one of their last 6 – matches, their very worst record throughout the build – up to a World Cup event since the year of 1958.
It is simply difficult to come to any conclusions from their previous 2 – Nations League contests, even though, since France had only 14 – players that were out due to injury. If there were any hopes that the new generation of the French national midfielders were prepared to take over control of the action in case that Paul Pogba as well as ’Golo Kantéare unable to make it back to the team in time for the 2022 World Cup, they may have been crushed.
Eduardo Camavinga went through a devastating 1st – half during the 2 to 0 loss against Denmark, and he may potentially be fighting for his spot on the team. Adrien Rabiot, Youssouf Fofana, and Aurelien Tchouaméni are better placed in the hands of their head coach in Didier Deschamps’ order of operations even if there were still some underlying questions and concerns.
Fofana performed well in France’s victory over Austria during his debut, but he lost a lot of balls after replacing Camavinga versus Denmark. And for Tchouameni, he was unable to live up to the hype vs. Denmark as well. Kanté, who is presently out of action due to a hamstring injury, is the only French player that his team cannot afford to play without.
England
If the game from the French national team was questionable then England’s is even more troubling. Their last match marks the 6th – game without a win for the English national football club, the nation’s longest winless streak since the year of 1993.
Never has England ever entered such a major football event or tournament on such a bad losing streak. The good fortune of the head coach, Gareth Southgate, as well as some of his players, most notably Harry Maguire, has dropped amongst their supporters and the sports media outlets too.
Significantly there just so happens to be an impactful number of footballers either not able to play enough for their respective teams or simply those players are completely out of form for one reason or another.
Southgate has on his own came up with the suggestion that he will keep faith with them in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup due to the fact they have built up significant credit with him following England’s strong run to the World Cup semifinals in 2018 as well as the European Championship final the previous season.
Their left back, center back. and the lack of presence of a central midfielder to help assist in a match are England’s largest concerns on the pitch. Many other national teams will be envious of England’s powerful attacking opportunities, but there is still a huge reliance on their dominant striker in Harry Kane.
Belgium
Belgium was able to conclude their Nations League run knowing just one thing for sure, and it is not a very comforting or good thing that’s for sure. With only 1 – tune – up game left prior to the 2022 World Cup which just so happens to be a friendly versus Egypt on Friday, November 18th, 2022.
Belgium dreadfully needs the services of Romelu Lukaku. Without the play of the presently injured talented striker inMichy Batshuayi the Belgium national team could simply not enforce themselves as a credible football club that is resilient.
Batshuayi was absolutely unsuccessful in the 1 to 0 defeat that Belgium suffered to the Netherlands in a match that Belgium began needing a win by 3 – goal scores or over that in order to advance.
Instead, their losing effort confirmed the 1st – time since the 2018 World Cup semifinals that Belgium was beaten without scoring a single goal.
Batshuayi made the way in order for Charles De Ketelaere to enter following the halftime break, but the AC Milan footballer was unable to create anything at all in a false number 9 role that was too hard to fill. Lukaku is currently anticipated to return fairly shortly after he recovers from his recent thigh injury. The national team from Belgium has a chance this time around as long as he is good to go in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.
Germany
The games that the German national team have played versus England and Hungary led to more questions than they did answers just 2 – months prior to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Germany last won the World Cup in the year of 2014.
The largest question at hand is: how good is the German national club? The answer is nobody really knows as of now. Hansi Flick’s squad beat a weakened Italian football team with a final tally of 5 to 2 in their last match back in June, but Germany failed to influence a breakthrough versus a well – organized and efficient Hungary football club as they lost that contest with a final score of 1 to 0 at home.
Germany then blew a 2 to nil advantage in England before Kai Havertz managed to rescue a 3 to 3 draw. Havertz and Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala were the only bright spots to be taken away from those 2 – games in national competition.
When the German football club controlled the time of possession, they showed that they lack the pivotal final pass in order to strike a closing blow, and England’s late push against them demonstrated that the Germans are predisposed to collapse especially in big matches. The win over the Italians was Germany’s only victory over their last 7 – matches. They conceded in each of those as well as drawing questions regarding their defensive presence for their coach Flick.
Spain
The 2010 World Cup champions in Spain, are one of the few European powerhouse clubs that look decent heading into this year’s World Cup. Spain is riding a high following them reaching the Nations League’s final four this season.
Luis Enrique’s club recovered from losing to Switzerland which surprisingly ended their 22 – match undefeated streak at home as Switzerland. They won 1 to 0 at their local rivals in the Portugal national team, potentially one of their most significant threats in Qatar for this year’s upcoming World Cup.
Spain had not won at Portugal in close to 2 – decades. La Roja was unbeaten in 8 – games prior to losing that shocker to Switzerland recently which ended a run reaching back to last season’s Nations League’s final four.
Also, on top of his game will be the 20 – year – old Athletic Bilbao forward Nico Williams, who set up Alvaro Morata’s game – winner vs. Portugal, and he is likely to secure his spot on the club’s World Cup roster this year.
Portugal will have to deal with the disappointments of the last – day eradication they faced at home not too long ago, and there are serious doubts encompassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s game at the moment. Ronaldo, who is likely to play in his final World Cup this year, had some unexpected misses vs. Spain, and he is not presently in Manchester United’s first – choice squad right now.
Sources:
The Associated Press News Services. “World Cup Watch: European giants showing flaws before Qatar”. The Associated Press. Wednesday, September 28, 2022.