Group B preview
Bosnia & Herzegovina: The Bosnians come into this World Cup on the back of two penalty shootout wins in qualifying against Wales and Italy to just make the tournament so they’ll hope to bring some momentum into a group they can definitely get out of, they are yet again led into a tournament by Edin Dzeko who whilst being 40 years old still captains the side and was just part of a Schalke team that got promoted to the Bundesliga this season. They heavily rely on their defensive stability quite like the Czech Republic and like to play long up to their two strikers to win the knock-downs and attack from there, the experience in the team should help them be solid at the back but I do worry about them going forward and if they will be able to score enough goals to get out of the group, I suppose we’ll wait and see.
Player to watch: Esmir Bajraktarevic
Canada: The Canadians are another one of the host nations in this World Cup and after qualifying for the first time back in 2022 they’ll hope to make it out of the group this time around, last year in the CONCACAF Gold Cup they made the quarter-finals going out to Guatemala on penalties which was a huge disappointment so they have a lot to prove this year in a group which they can be confident to at least qualify from. They are led yet again by Alphonso Davies who almost played as a striker back in the Qatar World Cup which I quite liked as he was quite effective further up the pitch in that tournament, the worry will be that his season has been heavily affected by injury so it could be a risk to play him 90 minutes in the three group games which will give Canada the best chance of qualifying from the group. All in all I’d be quite hopeful if I was Canadian at their chances this time round of at least making the Round of 32 or 16 which I think would be a success for them.
Player to watch: Ismael Kone
Qatar: Qatar where put on the map last time around and hosted in my opinion the best World Cup we’ve ever seen but as a team they were pretty hopeless in the tournament, they have definitely benefitted from the expansion of the World Cup and will hope to at least give the other teams in this group a good game which they didn’t manage last time. I did actually catch them in action against Ireland last week where to be honest I thought they were awful even with a man advantage for nearly a whole half were they created next to nothing only having one shot on target for the 90 minutes, I know it’s a friendly but I do think it’s important to try and bring some momentum into a tournament which Qatar currently aren’t. Maybe I’m being harsh but I’d be shocked if Qatar didn’t finish bottom of this group, can they shock the world this summer?
Player to watch: Akram Afif
Switzerland: The Swiss are without a doubt favourites to top this group and you can see why with the quality littered throughout the side heading into this World Cup, they got unlucky at the Euros in 2024 going out on penalties to England in the quarter-finals when I thought they were better team in that game so they can compete against some of the best teams in the world on their day. They’ll be keen to avoid another hammering if they make the knockouts as Portugal beat them 6-1 in the Round Of 16 in 2022 but I do think they’ve improved since then and will at least make the Round Of 16 again if not got further depending on the draw, they are captained by Granit Xhaka who is coming off a brilliant season for Sunderland leading them to a 7th place finish which no one saw coming at the start of the season. I think Switzerland will quietly have quite a good World Cup and will come out of this group with relative ease.
Player to watch: Dan Ndoye
Overall prediction for the group:
1.Switzerland
2.Canada
3.Bosnia & Herzegovina
4.Qatar