Doubts for the Spanish national team in this qualifying round for the World Cup Qatar 2022
The Spanish national team has started the qualifying round for the Qatar 2022 World Cup sowing certain doubts. Luis Enrique's bets on young people, with enthusiasm and with a lot of projection can be useful in the medium or long term, but for now the sensations are not the best. La Roja kicked off their campaign with a tough home draw against Greece, a surprising result that prevented the Spaniards from earning more than a point. In the second match, Luis Enrique's side had to travel to Georgia to face an inferior team. And Spain had to come from behind. A shaky first half allowed the Georgians to sleep at the end of the first 45 minutes with a 1-0 lead. But Spain came from behind thanks to a late Dani Olmo goal in stoppage time, with the help of their goalkeeper. The final 3-1 win over Kosovo gave the Spaniards the three points that put them at the top of the table while awaiting Sweden, who have a game in hand and are just one point behind.
Just as Greece were able to surprise on their visit to Spain to take a point, and just as Georgia came close to snatching a draw against La Roja, other teams have surprised in their opening matches. Year after year, the gap between the second-tier teams and the top teams seems to be narrowing considerably. Portugal already suffered a draw against Switzerland. France also drew in their opener against Ukraine, one of the strong teams in Group D but much less favoured than the French. Belgium were held to a similar fate after a one-goal draw away to the Czech Republic. On the face of it, three draws between teams that should be fighting for top spot in the group. England, Armenia, Denmark and Italy are the only teams to have won all three of their matches.
The improvement of the teams that a few seasons ago conceded an average of more than five goals is remarkable. It seems that the Uefa Nations League has made these teams more competitive and eager to face the big teams. The Netherlands succumbed 4-2 in their opener to a strong Turkey side who top their group. Croatia, the runners-up, lost 1-0 to Slovenia in their opening match and need to start to get back on track if they are to stay in contention. Belarus were able to beat Estonia 4-2, while Luxembourg were in bright form away to Ireland. Good feelings for these humble teams, which makes us understand that there are no easy opponents. The most notable was the German empire's historic 2-1 defeat at home to North Macedonia.
It is not easy to predict the results in this exciting first phase where we are seeing some very interesting surprises. Keeping up to date with these early rounds guarantees better predictions. The web portal Wincomparator offers for free all forecasts for Qatar 2022 and football predictions on the most important competitions such as: La Liga, Premier League, Champions League, Copa Libertadores and many more. Will there be more surprises on the road to Qatar? Stay informed and make your predictions.
