{"id":671002,"date":"2026-06-18T06:15:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=671002"},"modified":"2026-06-18T06:15:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:15:05","slug":"canada-vs-qatar-team-news-and-predicted-lineups-will-alphonso-davies-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/18\/canada-vs-qatar-team-news-and-predicted-lineups-will-alphonso-davies-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada vs Qatar: Team News and Predicted Lineups Will Alphonso Davies Return?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Team Canada secured a valuable point against Bosnia on matchday 1. That result has Canada second in Group B behind Switzerland, but all teams are on 1 point each and there&#8217;s everything to play for when Canada hosts Qatar in Vancouver on Thursday. We take a look at the predicted lineups and team news.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/17\/2026-world-cup-matchday-8-predictions-mexico-vs-south-korea\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"2026 World Cup Matchday 8 Predictions Including Mexico vs South Korea\" target=\"_self\">2026 World Cup Matchday 8 Predictions Including Mexico vs South Korea<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Canada vs Qatar<\/h2>\n<p>Date: Thursday, June 18th, 2026<br \/>\nVenue: BC Place, Vancouver<br \/>\nKick Off: 18:00 local time in Vancouver<br \/>\nReferee: Cristian Marcelo Garay Reyes<br \/>\nCurrent Odds: Canada 1.33, Draw 5.50, Qatar 10.00<\/p>\n<h3>Canada Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBjS7vYqg0\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3880px; aspect-ratio: 3880\/2587;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s one clear piece of news that matters for Team Canada, Bayern Munich&#8217;s Alphonso Davies is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/soccer\/2026-fifa-world-cup-buzz\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">available for selection<\/a> on matchday 2 against Qatar. It appears Davies has recovered enough from his hamstring injury to get minutes in the Qatar match, but the question remains whether he will be a starter, or playing a substitute role.<\/p>\n<p>Manager Jesse Marsch said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/fifa-world-cup\/article\/why-canadas-game-against-qatar-has-massive-implications\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>&#8220;He&#8217;ll be available tomorrow, and we&#8217;ll see how the match goes, and then make a decision on how we would choose to use (him),<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After a nervy opener against Bosnia, Canada hopes to settle and secure three points in front of a home crowd vs Qatar. The Canadian side had their chances on matchday 1,but were <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/17\/world-cup-knockout-phase-scenarios-for-the-usa-mexico-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">frustrated<\/a> by poor finishing until Cyle Larin came off the bench and leveled the match in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>A win for Canada would see them secure qualification for the knockout phase of the tournament. With Davies expected to begin from the bench, Larin moving into the starting striker role would be the only major XI change for Canada, as CB Alfie Jones has still come up injured, and Moise Bombito is also not expected to play in that same position,<\/p>\n<h3>Qatar Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"04742eb90cefa12a5e3ab9bae92c2b93\" image-id=\"neim3aqYNC19\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 5107px; aspect-ratio: 5107\/3405;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Qatar are buzzing after a great goalkeeping performance and a very late equalizer helped them draw Switzerland in a surprise matchday 1 result. The squad is fit and there are not expected to be major changes to the XI, though attacker Almoez Ali could feature.<\/p>\n<p>Manager Julen Lopetegui said &#8220;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/es-us.noticias.yahoo.com\/deportes\/dt-qatar-lopetegui-resta-importancia-001439463.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pressure<\/a> is not on his mind&#8221;<\/em> as he prepares Qatar for matchday 2. Having setup defensively against the Swiss, Qatar would likely employ a similar 4-3-3 setup against Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/16\/argentina-1986-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"The Maradona Myth: The Argentina 1986 World Cup Squad Was So Much More\" target=\"_self\">The Maradona Myth: The Argentina 1986 World Cup Squad Was So Much More<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Canada Predicted Lineup (4-4-2)<\/h3>\n<p>GK; Maxime Crepeau<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Alistair Johnston, Luc De Fougerolles, Derek Cornelius, Richie Laryea<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Tajon Buchanan, Ismael Kone, Stephen Eustaquio, Liam Millar<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Jonathan David, Cyle Larin<\/p>\n<h3>Qatar Predicted Lineup (4-3-3)<\/h3>\n<p>GK: Meshaal Ibrahim Abunada<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Ayoub Al Oui, Pedro Miguel, Boualem Khoukhi, Homam Al-Amin<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Jassem Gaber Abdulsallam, Assim Madibo, Issa Laye<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Edmilson Junior, Yusuf Abdurisag, Akram Afif<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Team Canada secured a valuable point against Bosnia on matchday 1. That result has Canada second in Group B behind Switzerland, but all teams are on 1 point each and there&#8217;s everything to play for when Canada hosts Qatar in Vancouver on Thursday. We take a look at the predicted lineups and team news. Read [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":671004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOByaCjWnQJ\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 4388px;aspect-ratio: 4388\/2925\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_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":[9541,2,161,1831,2132],"tags":[798,3001,2212,32867,8585,4925,32625],"class_list":["post-671002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canmnt","category-featured","category-international-football","category-starting-line-up","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-alphonso-davies","tag-canada","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-jesse-marsch","tag-jonathan-david","tag-qatar"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671002","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\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671005,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671002\/revisions\/671005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}