After the draw for the 22nd edition of the 2022 World Cup, which is being held in Qatar, football fans started talking about the most important and strongest matches of the group stage, which begins with the start of the World Cup on November 20 and continues until December 6.
The draw, which was drawn on the first of April 2022 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, produced a number of important and exciting matches that football fans are looking forward to.
Of these matches, of course, the opening match, and another that combines two former champions, and a third that is predominantly political, and a fourth that brought back to memory exciting events witnessed by a previous World Cup.
In this report, we highlight the 5 most important matches in the group stage.
Qatar - Ecuador
Football fans usually do not miss the opening match of the World Cup as it comes 4 years after the last match of the previous edition.
In addition, the followers are in a state of intense anticipation and anticipation for the start of the competitions, and to form a first impression about the rest of the tournament matches.
Since the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the host country's team is the one who cuts the tape of the World Cup matches to mark the start of the tournament, after the previous system required that the champion of the last version be one of the two sides of the opening confrontation.
Soon champions 🇶🇦🎶# We are all_Annabi# Annabi_stronger_with your encouragement pic.twitter.com/KlNvzWe6gN
— Qatar Football Association 🇶🇦 (@QFA) October 19, 2022
Therefore, the match between Qatar (the host country) and its Ecuadorean counterpart comes on top of those matches expected in the group stage of the World Cup.
The match will be held on November 20, 2022 at Al Bayt Stadium, and kicks off at 18:00 Mecca time.
The two teams had faced each other once before, and that was in a friendly match on October 12, 2018 at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Al Sadd Club, and ended with Al Annabi winning 4-3.
Argentina - Saudi Arabia
The "Tango" and "The Green" match is of great interest to Saudi fans in particular, who rushed to buy their tickets.
The interest in that match was not limited to the Saudi fans, but this reached their Arab counterparts, as well as the supporters of the Argentine national team, who are known for their great enthusiasm and crazy love for football.
This match is one of five matches, whose tickets witnessed a great demand, as it ranked second, as confirmed by the CEO of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Nasser Al-Khater, after the Argentina-Mexico match.
The last match between Saudi Arabia and Argentina ended in a draw in 2012 (Reuters)
This is not surprising given the value of the two continental and international teams, in addition to the fact that it will witness the first presence of the star Lionel Messi, the player of Paris Saint-Germain, in the World Cup in Qatar.
This match is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, November 21, at Lusail Stadium at 12:00 pm Mecca time.
This will be the third match between the two teams, as the first was held in the Confederations Cup on October 19, 1992, and ended with Argentina winning 3-1, while the two teams decided for a goalless draw, in a friendly match held in Riyadh on November 14, 2012 , witnessed the presence of Messi.
Spain - Germany
It can be said that the match between Spain and its German counterpart is the most awaited and awaited by football fans.
This lies in the fact that the two teams are among the elite teams in Europe and the world, because they have a great history in terms of titles, in addition to the bright names that each team includes.
Germany won the World Cup 4 previous times (1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014), while its Spanish counterpart won this honor only once (2010).
The "Manchaft" is seeking to rehabilitate him from the severe loss he suffered against "El Matador" in the last match between them, which was in the second edition of the European Nations League, and ended with a sweeping victory for Spain with six clean goals on November 17, 2020.
This awaited match will be held in the second round of the group stage on Sunday, November 27, at Al-Bayt Stadium, and it will start at 21:00 Mecca time.
Iran - America
This match is no less important than the confrontation of Spain and Germany, but the confrontation of the Iranian team and its American counterpart is waiting and waiting due to the tense political relationship between the two countries for many years.
This is not the first match between the two countries in the World Cup, as they had previously met in the World Cup in France on June 21, 1998, and the match took place at that time in a purely sporting atmosphere.
1️⃣DAYS TO GO!
🏆🇷🇺#Iran 🇮🇷 has only won 1 game at a World Cup Finals in a historic fixture against the #USA 🇺🇸 in 1998
Those players played with incredible heart and spirit and it made me proud to be Iranian pic.twitter.com/q5llGyHhp2
— Iran Football (@IranFooty) June 13, 2018
Iran won that historic match with two goals, scored by Hamid Esteli and Mehdi Mahdavikia in the 40th and 85th minutes, while the United States' only goal came by Brian McBride 3 minutes before the end.
The two teams will meet in the Qatar World Cup in the third round of group stage matches, on November 29, 2022 at Al Thumama Stadium at 21:00 Mecca time.
Ghana - Uruguay
On the day the Qatar World Cup draw resulted in Ghana and Uruguay in Group H, everyone went back 12 years in their memory.
Football fans recalled the last "crazy" moments of the two teams' match in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in South Africa, which was held at Soccer City on July 2, 2010.
On that day, Ghana was on its way to the semi-finals, but Luis Suarez's hand prevented the "Black Stars" from scoring a killer goal, so the referee awarded a penalty kick in the 120th minute, and showed the Uruguayan striker a red card.
But Asamoah Gyan missed his country's historic opportunity and hit the crossbar, sending Suarez into a hysterical delight.
Uruguay snatched the qualification for the semi-finals after that, after winning 4-2 on penalties.
The match between the two teams in the Qatar World Cup will be held in the third round of the group stage on the second of December 2022 at Al Janoub Stadium, at 17:00 Mecca time.