World Cup 2022 is little over a month away folks and the big European leagues are in full flow with plenty of action to come over the next few weeks.
It’s a great time to be a football fan and we’re already looking forward to Qatar 2022. The stars of the big nations are fine-tuning in readiness while putting in some superb performances for their domestic clubs.
Nobody wants to pick up an injury in the run up to the global festival of footy, and some players have already suffered that heartbreak. But plenty of others are giving us a glimpse of what we can expect when the World Cup begins on 20th November as the hosts take on Ecuador in Group A.
France and Brazil fans will be pleased to see Kylian Mbappe and Neymar at the top of the Ligue 1 goalscoring charts. The Paris Saint-Germain duo have scored eight goals each and Neymar, in particular, is having a brilliant campaign with seven assists as well from his ten games. According to the early World Cup 2022 betting odds Brazil and France are the nations to watch, and Neymar and Mbappe will be two of the players making the headlines in what could be a furious race for the Golden Boot.
Portugal are in Group H, along with Uruguay, Ghana and the Korea Republic, and they will be expected to come through. So it’s great news for Selecao fans that their talisman and captain Cristiano Ronaldo is still doing it at club level as he scored his 700th career goal, climbing off the bench to score the winner against Everton.
Over in Spain, Atletico Madrid’s Argentine forward Angel Correa scored twice in Los Rojiblancos 2-1 win over Girona and he will have high hopes of lining up alongside the great Lionel Messi and Inter Milan’s red-hot striker Lautaro Martinez in Qatar.
Meanwhile, 25-year-old Pau Torres is performing at a consistently high standard at the heart of Villarreal’s defence. The Yellow Submarine has conceded only four goals in the last six games and Torres, one of the most sought-after centre-backs in European football, will be a fixture at the heart of the Spain defence.
Trent and Dybala set to miss out?
In other World Cup 2022 news, two high-profile players have suffered setbacks this week and are highly unlikely to make it on the plane. Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of the most prolific assist makers in world football has come under criticism for his defending for Liverpool and he picked up an injury at precisely the wrong time, when he really needs to improve his form.
The England full-back has suffered a torrid time during Liverpool’s poor start to the Premier League season and he seemed to have a nasty injury in the first half of the Reds’ 3-2 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.
But he has also been blamed for some of the goals the Reds have conceded, including allowing Gabriel Martinelli to get behind him for Arsenal’s opener. After the game his boss, Jurgen Klopp said the injury didn’t look good and that Trent would need a scan to check the damage. I suspect his chances of making the England squad have all but disappeared.
And it seems a certainly that Roma striker Paulo Dybala is set to miss out after picking up the strangest of injuries in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Lecce. The Argentine star has been in superb form for Roma since his switch from Juventus and he scored his fifth league goal of the campaign when he converted a spot-kick against Lecce. But immediately after scoring he limped off the pitch.
Dybala was set to join the Argentina squad which has high hopes of challenging at the World Cup, but Roma boss Jose Mourinho says his prospects are slim, adding that it is a ‘very bad’ muscle injury which will keep Dybala out of the game for a few weeks, and maybe until the new year.
With the likes of Messi, Correa and Martinez in their ranks, La Albiceleste are expected to go deep into the competition with a real chance of winning it. Dybala was set to be a key part of that, but now he is in a race against time to recover for Qatar and Mourinho isn’t hopeful he will win.
Cruise ship luxury for fans willing to splash out
Here at SBOTOP we’ve been reporting on all the preparations for the World Cup in Qatar and there is more news for fans hoping to travel, particularly those willing to dig deep into their pockets!
The World Cup organizers announced, on Sunday, that a third cruise ship has been hired to operate as a football fan hotel to be docked in Doha Port. A Geneva-based cruise company is leasing to Qatar a 1075-cabin cruise liner and prices start from $470 for a bed, during the group stage.
Qatar has been advising fans to stay in neighbouring countries and fly in for games, so it will be a pretty expensive trip in any case, so why not take a cruise…in the port?
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