Brazil Have The Best Form, England The Worst Ahead Of Qatar 2022 World Cup

Form matters going into the World Cup.

The past five winners all went into the World Cup on good form in the six matches they played ahead of their respective tournaments.

Spain’s imperious team of 2010 won all six of their six matches ahead of the South Africa 2010 World Cup, part of a run of twelve wins in a row that had such momentum that it couldn’t even be stopped by a surprise loss to Switzerland in their opening World Cup match.

Brazil got five wins out of six ahead of Korea-Japan 2002, France lost just one of their six games ahead of Russia 2018, and Germany and Italy both won three and drew three in their final six games as part of long unbeaten runs ahead of their respective World Cup triumphs.

That’s bad news for England boss Gareth Southgate.

England go into the 2022 World Cup on the worst form of any of the 32 teams heading to Qatar. With three draws and three defeats, England would have picked up just three points from their six most recent international games, losing twice to Hungary and once to Italy. Their current run is the first time England have gone six games without a win since 1993.

England’s closest neighbors haven’t fared well recently either, with Wales having the second worst form of the 32 World Cup teams over the past six games, picking up just four theoretical points. Wales did face one of the most difficult sets of fixtures of any team in those six games though, based on August’s FIFA rankings.

Current champions France have the next worst form, picking up just five theoretical points in their last six games.

Brazil are the form side going into Qatar 2022. The Seleção have won six of their last six, and they have won five of those by three or more goals, scoring 22 goals and conceding just two in those six matches. Their recent results include 5-1 wins over Tunisia and South Korea, 4-0 wins over Chile and Bolivia. Japan came closest to stopping Brazil, losing 1-0 to a late Neymar penalty in Tokyo back in June.

Brazil haven’t lost a match since the Copa America final in 2021, but South American rivals Argentina can boast an even more impressive unbeaten run, having gone since July 2019 without defeat. Argentina have the joint-second best form over the last six games, conceding just one goal and only dropping points to Ecuador. Out of their six most recent opponents though, only Ecuador will actually be at the World Cup.

The Netherlands have the same record as Argentina over the last six games, and have played tougher opposition in that time, beating neighbors and FIFA’s second highest ranked team Belgium twice. They are also unbeaten since their Euro 2020 loss to Czech Republic last summer and are heading into the World Cup as Europe’s form team.

Several teams have managed to win four of their six most recent games, but none of those sides had as tough a fixture list as Croatia who have won their last four games, beating the likes of France and Euro 2020 semi-finalists Denmark.

With previous World Cup winners showing such good form ahead of the tournament, England and France might be among soccer’s heavyweights, but they are already one step behind their opponents.