Hosts Qatar will lock horns with Ecuador today in Group-A match of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor city, Qataron. The match kickstarts at 10:00pm (BST). History reveals home side favourites today since the past four opening World Cup games have produced 17 goals at an average of 4.25 per match and the hosts of the World Cup have never lost the opening game. The 50th ranked Qatar are desperate to retain the history and colour their World Cup debut. Besides, Al Bayt Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Qatar, as they have won their three previous matches at the venue with an aggregate score of 9-0 and they have taken part in four warm-up friendlies since October and have won all four of them. Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and most recently Albania have fallen to Qatar's superiority in recent weeks and the Maroon are now aiming to become the first World Cup debutants to win their opening match since Senegal beat then-defending champions France in 2002. Ecuador on the contrary, reclaim their World Cup participation after eight years, who have already appeared at three editions of the competition in 2002, 2006 and 2014. The 44th in the world rankings are surely favourite today due to their recent form alongside strength and experience. They qualified for the World Cup by finishing fourth in the South American qualifiers table. They are the team that have been very hard to beat in the qualifiers and they even managed to hold Brazil and Argentina to 1-1 towards the end of the qualification campaign.
However, they are a team that lacks goals. They have only scored one goal in their last five friendlies leading up to the World Cup and have drawn nine out of their last 12 games in all competitions. Meanwhile, Qatar qualified for the World Cup as the tournament's hosts. They played in the 2019 Copa America, 2019 Gold Cup and took part in the European qualifiers for the World Cup, although these were classed as friendlies, but it meant they had experience against a variety of opposition. Hosts preferably will set-up in a 3-5-2 formation while Ecuador may set up in a 4-3-3 formation Qatar and Ecuador have met three times earlier and Qatar hosted all of those matches, from which equally balanced head-to-head record produced as both the sides won one each and drew the rest scoring six goals each. Both the sides have fully fit squads to choose from and Qatar won all three of their previous matches at Al Bayt Stadium with an aggregated scoreline of 9-0.