USA TO FACE WALES IN OPENER

The United States of America (USA) will face Wales in their opener at this year’s World Cup tournament after the Welsh team ended a 64-year wait. Wales qualified for their first World Cup tournament since they made their debut at the 1958 edition in Sweden by beating Ukraine 1-0 in the playoffs.

West Ham player Andriy Yarmolenko scored in the wrong net on 34 minutes to give the Welsh team passage to Qatar. Wales had Wayne Hennessey to thank for the victory over the Ukrainians after the shot stopper made some smart saves to deny the visitors. Wales used home advantage to positive effect in the playoffs thereby securing a place in Qatar.

At the tournament in Qatar, England and Iran will join USA and Wales in Group B. USA qualified for the tournament as the third best team from the Concacaf section of the qualifiers, while Iran won their group in the third round of the Asian qualifiers to seal passage to the tournament. On their part, England sealed automatic qualification to the Qatar 2022 tournament after winning their group ahead of Poland, Hungary and others.

The first game in Group B would be between 1966 winners England and Iran, while USA will do battle with Wales to complete the first set of games in the group. For the second set of games, Wales will face Iran, while England take on 1994 hosts USA to complete the second set of Group B games. For the third and final set of games in the group, they would be played simultaneously with USA and Iran battling with each other, while England and Wales would meet again at a major tournament after doing battle at Euro 2016.

The first two teams will go through to the last 16 of the tournament, while the last two teams will exit the tournament.

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