The 2022 FIFA World Cup is around the corner and the group stage matchups are all set. World Cup 2022 will start off on Sunday 20th November with the host country Qatar facing Ecuador until Sunday 18th December 2022 when it will end.
Initially Senegal v Netherlands were set to open the World Cup 2022 but FIFA changed it to Qatar v Ecuador in mid August because of the long standing tradition of opening matches involving hosts.
The Tournament will have a 32-team group stage that will have to reduce to 16 teams with only the top two teams will move to the single-game, round 16, quarter finals, semi finals and then to the finals where the winner moves on and the loser goes home.
World Cup 2022 will have 32 countries competing including the host Qatar where the tournament will be held with majority of games played in the capital City of Doha. The stadiums in Doha include Ras Abu Abound Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium, Education City Stadium and the Khalifa International Stadium.
The other stadiums that will be used include Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan, Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah.
World Cup 2022 Confirmed Group stage Fixtures.
- Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands.
- Group B: England, Iran, USA, Wales
- Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland.
- Group D: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia.
- Group E: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan.
- Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia.
- Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon.
- Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea
The kick off day is Sunday 20th November 2022 in Qatar and the group stage will go until Sunday 18th December, 2022 which will be held at the 80,000 seater Lusail Iconic Stadium.
Key dates
- Nov 20 – Dec 2: Group stage
- Dec 3 – 6 : Round 16
- Dec 9 – 10: Quarter finals
- Dec 13 – 14 : Semi Finals
- Dec 18 : World cup finals.
It should be noted that the Premier League was supposed to run from 6th August, 2022 until May 28th, 2023. However, due to the World Cup 2022, the Premier League will break off after the weekend of November 12/13 and resume it’s fixtures again on 26th December, 2022 Boxing day.
Players of the Premier League will have a week of preparations with their national teams before heading for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Then should they reach the finals on the 18th December 2022, they will have eight days to recover. There are only six weekends without Premier League games.