{"id":619407,"date":"2022-11-22T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=619407"},"modified":"2022-11-19T15:58:59","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T20:58:59","slug":"world-cup-group-f-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/11\/22\/world-cup-group-f-predictions\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 FIFA World Cup \u2013 Group F Predictions: Croatia’s Success to Continue as Canada Make a Return After 36 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Group F is arguably the most intriguing of this World Cup, featuring\u00a0<\/span>Belgium<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in what may very well be their last chance to win a major title – at least for this golden generation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The group also contains the 2018 runners-up\u00a0<\/span>Croatia<\/span><\/a>, who’ve set an example of how a generational transition should be done with their recent success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Canada<\/span><\/a>, playing in their first World Cup since 1986, can be found here, too. The group is rounded off by\u00a0<\/span>Morocco<\/span><\/a>, who failed to secure positive results in 2018 despite playing quite well.<\/span><\/p>\n

2022 FIFA World Cup Group F Predictions<\/span><\/h2>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/HNS_CFF\/status\/1590286757836517377<\/p>\n

Read More<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span>Chelsea Chase Croatian Defender<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Croatia’s Success to Continue<\/span><\/h3>\n

The top spots will most likely be occupied by Belgium and Croatia, even though Canada and Morocco have the ability to cause upsets. Croatia topped a difficult Nations League A group, obtaining three more points than Belgium, who lost twice against the Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, the Belgians and Croats enjoyed similarly solid performances in the World Cup qualifiers. The Red Devils have the higher\u00a0<\/span>Elo rating<\/span><\/a>\u00a0between the two teams, slightly superior players and this golden generation usually perform well in the group stages of\u00a0<\/span>major tournaments<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, their only non-win in the group stage throughout these last eight years was against Italy in 2016 – an impressive record. Then again, Croatia have experienced similar group-stage success during this time, though to a slightly lesser extent.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are fair cases for both Belgium and Croatia to clinch the top spot, but given the better form shown in the Nations League – the Croatians should be marginally favoured. However, Belgium should still be able to reach the knockout stage, as they are better than Canada and Morocco.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Belgium Midfielder Close to Joining Nottingham Forest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadaSoccerEN\/status\/1591819530845970432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1591819530845970432%7Ctwgr%5E65e813b893d2be87cbe064f3e7216c924420d2d6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flastwordonsports.com%2Ffootball%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D619407action%3Deditclassic-editor<\/p>\n

Morocco Helped by More Recent World Cup Experience<\/span><\/h3>\n

Distinguishing between Canada and Morocco is no easy matter with their similar Elo ratings and comparably strong players. Canada are making a return to the World Cup for the first time since 1986.<\/span><\/p>\n

One could argue that this will give them extra motivation, which could give them the edge over Morocco. However, Morocco\u2019s recent World Cup experience could give them a slight advantage over the Canadians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last Word on Football recognise the human rights abuses and instances of corruption taking place throughout Qatar and in the background of the World Cup. Learn more about some of the issues surrounding the World Cup here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Group F is arguably the most intriguing of this World Cup, featuring\u00a0Belgium\u00a0in what may very well be their last chance to win a major title – at least for this golden generation. The group also contains the 2018 runners-up\u00a0Croatia, who’ve set an example of how a generational transition should be done with their recent success. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3313,"featured_media":619520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2132,161,9367],"tags":[628,2212,801,1814,8488],"class_list":["post-619407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-cup","category-international-football","category-predictions","tag-belgium","tag-canada","tag-croatia","tag-morocco","tag-world-cup-2022"],"modified_by":"Joe Blackburn, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}