Africa-Press – Botswana. Qatar and Ecuador face each other today, at 5 pm, at the Al Bayt Stadium, in Doha, in the opening game of the 22nd edition of the Football World Cup, referring to Group A of the competition.Playing at home, Qatar are clear favorites to win the three points, but they don’t expect an easy game, as Ecuador intends to counter the opponent’s attempts as much as possible. Both teams have a game of high difficulty and shared favoritism.
In this confrontation, the South American team will face two opponents, the home team and the fervent fans who, naturally, will push for their selection from the first to the last minute, in search of a positive result. However, the initial minutes of the match will be a mutual study, since the participants in the show will play a game of containment, that is, they will not risk too much.
From the first quarter of an hour, the two teams will appear more relaxed and the show will certainly gain another intensity, since the ball artists will put all the “meat in the roaster”, with the intention of achieving the three points in dispute.
As organizers of the competition, Qatar set the goal of reaching the “eighth rounds”, but for that to happen, the host country is under pressure to win the first two challenges, in order to keep the qualifying flame burning.
In addition to the first place in the group, the Asian team defined as a second priority, the dispute for the second place in the series, in order to stamp the passport for the round of 16.
Regarding the primacy of the series, Qatar has little chance of achieving such a goal, since it will have opposition from the Netherlands and Senegal.
The first two games in Qatar will be seen as authentic finals, because an eventual slip up ruins the dream of being in the next phase of the competition.
In the contingency of losing to Ecuador, Qatar will have to win the next meetings with Senegal and the Netherlands, difficult opponents and strong candidates to pass to the “eighth”.
The mechanical oranges, official designation of the Netherlands, and the lions of Taranga, nickname of Senegal are, for now, the teams that will probably advance to the next round of the competition. Qatar makes its debut in the competition, while Ecuador competes for the second time, after being baptized in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Senegal vs netherlands
For the same group, Senegal will face Holland, tomorrow, at 17:00, at Al-Thumama Stadium. The Dutch have a 60% chance of winning against 16% for the Senegalese side, who will be without their main star, striker Sadio Mané, due to an injury.
On human rights
Qatar coach regrets “disinformation”
The Qatar football coach, the Spaniard Félix Sanchez, yesterday lamented the “disinformation” surrounding the rights of migrant workers in the country, but considered the deaths of workers during the works for the 2022 World Cup to be “tragic”.
“It is a subject that has been much talked about, but, in my opinion, there is a lot of misinformation and a disproportionate approach to reality”, said the coach, at the press conference before the game with Ecuador, which will mark the start of the World Cup today. 2022.
Félix Sanchez considered that “the loss of a human life in an accident at work is always something tragic, in Qatar, or in any other part of the world”, and expressed the desire that the World Cup can “guarantee an improvement in the living conditions of who does not have them, all over the world”.
The Qatari authorities have been criticized for violating the human rights of migrant workers, with non-governmental organizations pointing to thousands of deaths in the construction of the infrastructures on which the 2022 World Cup is based, which starts this afternoon.
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