We have another day of four matches in the FIFA World Cup 2022 tournament on Thursday and they get underway with the opening match in Group G where Switzerland take on Cameroon in the early kick off in Al Wakrah.
These two sides will know that they are in a group with Brazil so dropping points here isn’t really an option if they want to keep realistic hopes of qualifying from the section alive so we should expect a competitive outing here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV 1 channel with the build-up to the opening game of the day beginning at 9am and the kick off coming at 10am.
Switzerland
There is talk about this being the best Switzerland squad that has ever been put together heading to this tournament. I’m not really in a place to dispute that but that is going to put some serious pressure on the squad if that is the case and it will be interesting to see how they go about justifying those claims. To be fair, they showed what they can do when they dumped France out of Euro 2020 last year. They then qualified for this tournament ahead of Italy so there could be merit in those claims.
Switzerland have generally been considered quite defensive and a little bit dour but as this squad as evolved and improved a number of better attacking players have come along and the shackles have come off the team. If there is a concern then it would be over a lack of creativity in the side with Xherdan Shaqiri now plying his trade in the MLS but if he can have a good tournament then there is no reason why with Haris Seferovic and Breel Embolo ahead of him Switzerland can’t have a good campaign.
Cameroon
I always respect the African qualifiers in this competition because they have made their qualifying section harder than it probably needs to be. I always think Cameroon should be respected more because it was them that launched African football onto the map when they made the quarter final of this competition back in 1990. Many have followed since then but Cameroon haven’t really kicked on. They arrive at this tournament having missed out on Russia looking to do just that.
Cameroon began the year finishing third at their own Africa Cup of Nations after losing out to Egypt in the semi-final. Since then goals have been something of an issue with just five of them in their last seven matches and they really need to find a way to get the ball from the back to the front. They are a very good team in the defensive areas of the pitch but there is always a sense of them running out of ideas at the other end of it.
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Team News
Switzerland have reported a fully fit squad for this match. There was an initial doubt over goalkeeper Yann Sommer but he is available, as is Ricardo Rodriguez who was also a doubt. Granit Xhaka remains key for the Swiss.
Cameroon have a doubt over the Napoli midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa which would be a blow if he is to miss out. Rigobert Song will need to decide whether to stick with Vincent Aboubakar or play the in form Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting even if it means leaving his captain out.
Betting
This doesn’t feel like a match that is going to be high scoring. Both of these teams are pretty efficient defensively and you wouldn’t say either of them are massively convincing in front of goal, although to be fair to the Swiss they are a lot better in that department these days than they ever used to be. You would think this would be extremely competitive though with neither wanting to lose it and we have seen on a few occasions in this tournament already that teams aren’t willing to take risks at this early stage of a competition.
We are also still waiting for the first goal by an African team in this tournament and we’ve seen three of them already which doesn’t bode well for Cameroon in this match. In truth, Senegal, Tunisia and Morocco never really looked like scoring and it will be interesting to see if there is any more ambition shown by Cameroon. I’m not convinced there will be. I think Switzerland will come out on top here but the 0-0 wouldn’t surprise me. Either way I fancy under 2.25 goals in this one.
Tips
Back Under 2.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
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