At 11:00 p.m. today (November 20), the ball named "The Journey" (Al Rihla) will officially roll at Al Bayt - 1 of 8 host cities for matches at the 2022 World Cup. Home team - Qatar team, meet Ecuador on a field with a capacity of 60,000 spectators.
Maybe, this is not a match between two big opponents, but given the nature of the opening match, the concern is huge. Speaking about the opening match, the history of the World Cups has interesting statistics, in which, Qatari people can be optimistic about the fact that no home team has failed.
Returning to the past, when the organization time was still limited, the concept of "opening the match" was not as popular as it is now. Therefore, there is an event starting with... 8 matches taking place at the same time.
In 2020, the World Cup was held for the first time in Uruguay, with 2 matches taking place at the same time on the opening day (13.7): a 4-1 victory for France over Mexico and a 3-0 victory for the US over Belgium.
At the world championship in 1934, held for the first time in Europe (Italy), there were 8 matches taking place at the same time on the first day, in which the home team beat the US team 7-1. Spain beat Brazil 3-1, Austria beat France 3-2, Hungary beat Egypt 4-2, Tiep Khac beat Romania 2-1, Switzerland beat the Netherlands 3-2, Germany beat Belgium 5-2 and Sweden beat Argentina 3-2.
After 10 matches, it was not until the 1938 World Cup in France that the first draw on the opening day was witnessed, when Switzerland drew 1-1 with Germany.
After a 12-year hiatus, the World Cup returned in 1950 in Brazil and dancers Samba opened the tournament with a 4-0 victory over Mexico.
In 1954, in Switzerland, there were 4 more matches at the same time on the opening day but the home team did not have them. Brazil beat Mexico 5-0, Nam Tu beat France 1-0, Uruguay beat Tiep Khac 2-0 and Austria beat Scotland 1-0.
After 1958 when the home team Sweden beat Mexico 3-0, there were 4 opening matches at the World Cup 1962. Mexico really had no luck with their opening days, as they lost to Brazil (0-2) again, while Uruguay beat Colombia 2-1, Argentina beat Bulgaria 1-0 and Chile beat Switzerland 3-1.
Starting in 1966, when England were the host, there was only 1 opening match at the World Cups. That year, the Three Lions opened with a 0-0 draw with Uruguay, before winning the championship for the first time also the only one up to this point, with the final win over Germany 4-2.
In 1970, Mexico was the host but could not beat the Soviet team (drawing 0-0). From 1966 to 1978, no goals were scored in the opening 4 matches Brazil met Nam Tu in 1974 and Tay Duc met Poland in 1978
The year 1974 also marked the opening match of the defending champions. In 1982, defending champion Argentina lost 0-1 to Belgium in the opening match of the tournament, before repeating the same score against Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup. Four years before that, Italy drew 1-1 with Bulgaria.
France were the other defending champions to receive disappointing results in the opening match in 2002 (losing to Senegal 0-1), while Brazil beat Scotland 2-1 in 1998.
Starting from 2006, when the defending champion team no longer had a chance to participate in the next final round, the home teams were selected to play in the opening match. Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2 in 2006, South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico (Mexico have not won any of their opening seven games).
After Brazil beat Croatia 3-1 in 2014, it was not until 2018 that an Asian representative played the opening match for the first time. However, Saudi Arabia was crushed 5-0 by Russia.
What results will await Qatar and Ecuador?
