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France lifted the World Cup in Russia in 2018
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The 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar will see France travel to the Gulf as defending champions. Les Blues beat Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 final and Didier Deschamps’s side will be hopeful of retaining the trophy that they won in Russia.
According to Oddschecker, Brazil are the bookies’s favourites to win in Qatar. The five-time world champions are priced at 4/1 to lift the trophy on 18 December, while Argentina, France, England, Spain and Germany are also fancied.
Another storyline being talked about is Lionel Messi’s final chance of winning the World Cup. Now 35, all that’s missing from his trophy cabinet is a World Cup winners’ medal. Can he finally achieve the ultimate dream in football?
Here we take a look at the World Cup pundit predictions and winner betting odds.
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Argentina captain Lionel Messi with the Copa America trophy in 2021
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In its final year of publishing the popular football video game with Fifa’s branding, EA Sports has revealed its prediction for the winner of the 2022 World Cup. After correctly predicting the last three winners in 2010, 2014 and 2018, EA Sports has used HyperMotion2 Technology and the dedicated ratings in Fifa World Cup Kick-Off and Tournament modes to simulate all 64 matches and see who will come out on top in Qatar. According to a simulation of the 2022 final, Argentina will beat Brazil in “a tense game that was decided by a single goal”. And the goalscorer for the Albiceleste as they win their first World Cup since 1986? Who else… Lionel Messi. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner is also predicted to score eight goals in seven games, picking up the Golden Boot and Golden Ball in the process. It will be “a captain’s display” as the tournament’s best player rounds off a memorable Fifa World Cup.
Joachim Klement, a London-based stockbroker at Liberum Capital Ltd, developed a “proprietary econometric model” to predict the winners of the World Cups in 2014 and 2018. With a 100% success rate so far, who does he think will win in 2022? According to Klemen’s calculations the winners will be Argentina, who will beat England in the final. “Messi will win something that [Cristiano] Ronaldo never has and Argentina will celebrate its first World Cup win in 36 years,” he said.
In his second attempt at “predicting how things will shake up in Qatar”, CBS Sport’s James Benge tipped Argentina and Messi to get their “revenge” for 2014 by beating Germany in the final. Eight years ago the Germans won the cup with a 1-0 victory after extra-time, but this year Benge believes the Argentines will triumph 2-1 on 18 December with Messi writing himself into the “history books”. Benge’s first predictions attempt earlier this year had Brazil “conquering all” by beating England 2-0 in the final.
Jürgen Klinsmann, a World Cup winner with West Germany in 1990, said Brazil are his “personal favourite” to lift the trophy. The former striker, who scored 11 goals in 17 World Cup games, has backed Neymar and Co, having watched them over the last couple of years and during the qualifying campaign. “I was so impressed how they just rolled through the qualifiers, especially as South America is probably the toughest of all continents to qualify from,” he told Fifa+. “The way they did it was very impressive.”
After lifting the trophy in Russia in 2018, Didier Deschamps’s France will be among the frontrunners again in 2022, said Graham Ruthven on The Sporting News. However, “the curse of the defending champions” could hit the French in the last 16, should they meet Argentina. Ruthven has tipped Spain to beat England in the final. There was a sense at the Euros that Spain were “close to hoisting a trophy”, and they “look poised to triumph in Qatar”.
“According to our predictive tournament model”, France have consistently been the most likely team to win the World Cup, said Kevin Chroust on The Analyst. Les Bleus “remain our favourites” to land the biggest prize in football.
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Brazil are fancied to lift the trophy on 18 December
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