Historical factors to play big role in Qatar 2022 groups stage matches

Only weeks separate us from the start of the 2022 World Cup, and the first event to be held in the Middle East promises to be different in many ways.

And not only because of the nature of the host country and the audience, but with a number of highly anticipated clashes having intriguing historical backgrounds.

The host’s national team, having been slated to kick off their campaign in the tournament’s third match on Nov. 21, will now face Ecuador a day earlier in Group A.

It is the first time such a change has been made at relatively short notice, but Qatar now will have the opening-day spotlight exclusively on them.

The following day in the same group, and 20 years on from sensationally beating then reigning champions France in the opening fixture of the 2002 World Cup, Senegal will have another opportunity to shock one of Europe’s leading teams when they take on the Netherlands.

Group B will see the resurrection of one of football’s rare but highly charged — politically at least — fixtures, when the US and Iran face off for the second time in the World Cup. In 1998, Iran pulled off a memorable 2-1 win in France.

England, expected to win the group, will not have an easy ride against fired-up neighbors Wales, or indeed against their American and Asian opponents.

Group C kicks off with a monumental fixture for football fans in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia take on Argentina at Lusail Iconic Stadium on Nov. 20. With Lionel Messi seeking glory in what is surely his last World Cup appearance, the Green Falcons could not have had a more difficult start. It doesn’t get much easier with matches against Poland and Mexico.

Meanwhile, Argentina and Mexico will meet in a fixture that has produced some world classics over