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The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is only six months away and fans are buzzing for one of the most unique tournaments of the global showpiece in modern history.
The group stage matchups for the 22nd edition of the World Cup are set and fans, pundits and various football figures have begun to come to the public with their predictions. Most importantly, there will be a few interesting matches in the upcoming tournament like Argentina-Mexico, France-Denmark and Spain-Germany.
In anticipation of the upcoming showpiece, here is the complete schedule for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
When is the World Cup?
The tournament is the first-ever winter World Cup and the most compact tournament in its history. It will kick off on Monday, November 21 and end on Sunday, December 18.
Tournament format
The tournament will follow the usual format of a 32-team group stage which will whittle down into 16 teams in three knockout rounds before the winner is determined in a final.
Eight groups containing the best teams in the world will slug it out in the group stages and two teams from each group will make it to the round of 16. The round of 16 will follow as the first of the knockout round which will cut the teams down to eight.
Then comes the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, before the final to determine the 22nd winner of the World Cup. The four semi-finalists are the only teams that will play seven games at the tournament.
Games in the knockout rounds that end goalless will have 30 minutes of extra time and will go to penalties as a tie-breaker if no goals are scored in that time.
Who will play in the World Cup?
29 of the 32 teams have already been decided and drawn into groups. June will see the remaining three teams be decided from among five teams who will face off in the last European qualifiers and the last intercontinental qualifiers.
Here are the groups for the upcoming showpiece.
Group A: Qatar (hosts), Ecuador, Netherlands, Senegal
Group B: England, Iran, USA, Scotland/Wales/Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, UAE/Australia/Peru, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea
Fixture dates
The group stages start on the opening day of the tournament, November 21, and will end on December 2. The round of 17 will follow immediately from December 3 to 6. The quarter-finals will run from December 9 to 10, and the semi-finals from December 13 to 14.
The unlucky teams from the semi-finals will then face each other for third place on December 17, and the winner will be crowned on the final and closing day on December 18.
Fixture times
Group stage matches will b played at 1 PM, 4 PM and 7 PM on their scheduled days while knockout games will take place at 6 PM and 10 PM. The last day of the group stages will have overlapping games for competitive integrity, which will see some matches played at 10 PM.