It'll end up with no qualifiers necessary as all teams will already be there! Ludicrous. Edit: It appears that the idea that no one should "lose" is permeating upward to an inevitable conclusion. Will the teams that get knocked out then play in a "didn't quite-win" secondary tournament play off and so on and so on until every team has a trophy? Sorry for the rant but it really annoys me! Edit2: The other conclusion to draw is that it'll be a bigger money spinner. This is probably the real reason for more teams involved.
From a tournament perspective they reckon that the team that doesn't play in the opening group game is at a disadvantage. If there is a winner in the opening game then they know they only need a draw in the second game to go through which means that team's mindset (presumably park the bus) will have a big impact.
Looking at the squads for France, Spain, Germany they seem to be in transition. There's a lot of players in there I don't know much (if anything) about. Belgium have still got their core players from recent tournaments and could be a good shout. Brazil and Argentina tend to do better when the tournament isn't held in Europe (so I've read). Argentina are on a 35 game unbeaten run. Italy are missing and England had a bad Nations League showing and a weakened defence. I'll go with Argentina beating Belgium in the final.
Denmark are a decent team, should get out of the group - and it is the 30th anniversary of winning the Euros (without Michael Laudrup if I remember correctly) - so I’m going for them
My worry is I'll turn off after Wales go out (final? ) as the diving will have reached new depths. I'm getting very grumpy in my old age
Wales' fixture schedule: Group stages Wales v USA , Monday 21 November 2022, 19:00 (UK time) - Ahmed bin Ali Stadium Wales v Iran, Friday 25 November, 2022, 10:00 (UK time) - Ahmed bin Ali Stadium Wales v England, Tuesday 29 November, 2022, 19:00 (UK time) - Ahmed bin Ali Stadium
The Wales v USA Group B match will kick-off at 7pm on Monday, 21 November. It is being shown on ITV with coverage starting at 6:05pm - it will be shown free-to-air and you can also live stream it for free on the ITV website.
We need to win the group. If we come second, we will likely play the Netherlands. If we win the group, we would have either Equador, Senegal or Qatar. That's quite a difference.