Tim Cahill believes England will be among the favourites to win the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar. The Australia icon feels the Three Lions can benefit the most from the winter timing.
Gareth Southgate will manage England at the first World Cup held in the Middle East across November and December. It is also the first of the 22 tournaments that will be held during the European winter. The World Cup is usually held in the summer months of June and July.
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Cahill has now told the Khaleej Times that the change in timing should help nations such as England. He believes the Three Lions have struggled at recent tournaments as their players have arrived on the back of gruelling club campaigns, but will travel to Qatar much sharper.
Mason Mount featured in the Euro 2020 final against Italy last year after playing 54 games for Chelsea over the 2020/21 term. West Ham’s Declan Rice also admitted recently that he played an ‘obscene’ amount of games from June 2021 to June 2022 after playing 68 times.
Yet England fly to the Qatar World Cup in the middle of the 2022/23 Premier League term. So, rather than his players running on empty, Southgate could benefit from having a much fresher team to call on. But the Three Lions will fly to Qatar without a positive run of form.
Tim Cahill tips England to be among his five ‘obvious’ Qatar World Cup favourites
England have not won any of their last six games across all competitions, having lost twice to Hungary and once to Italy around two draws with Germany and a draw with the Azzurri. The Three Lions last won in March after they beat Ivory Coast 3-0 in a friendly at Wembley.
Nonetheless, Cahill has backed England to be among the favourites to win the Qatar World Cup. He points to the Three Lions reaching the Euro 2020 final in 2021 as one of the factors for his belief. Southgate also led England to the semi-final at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“The favourites for the World Cup are the obvious ones,” Cahill said. “You have France, the defending champions, and then there are Brazil, Argentina and Germany. But I am going to say England because they had a great Euro 2020.
“Obviously, they had a sticky patch, but this World Cup is happening in [the] winter. Normally, you play the World Cup after playing 40-50 games in the club season. But teams will be coming here with the players playing only 20-odd matches in the midseason.
“So, I think it might benefit the European teams, especially England. It’s been a long time coming and so we will see.”
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