World Cup Groups: The Forecast Acca you should be backing at over 2000/1

It’s now just over six weeks until the World Cup gets underway in Qatar and today at BettingOdds.com we’ve decided to take a look at the World Cup groups. We’ve put together an acca consisting of our forecast for each group for who will finish first and second and advance to the knockout stages. £1 on the acca potentially returns £2,171 with bet365.

Group A - Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands

Group A includes the hosts of the tournament, Qatar, who will kick-off the World Cup with the curtain-raiser against Ecuador on November 20. It’s hard not to envision the Netherlands topping Group A, the Orangje are currently on a run of 15 games without defeat in all competitions which includes a 4-1 away win in Belgium. Memphis Depay was the joint top scorer in European qualifying with 12 goals in 10 matches and along with the Netherlands we think Senegal will also qualify and finish in second spot. In Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly the African side possess some real quality at the back and it could well be this strength and structure in defence that gives them the edge over Qatar and Ecuador. 

Verdict: 1st Netherlands - 2nd Senegal

Group B - Iran - Wales - England - USA

When looking at the average ranking for each Group, Group B has the lowest figure (15) according to FIFA’s world ranking system, with all of the sides in here currently inside the top-20 in the world. This could lead to the argument that Group B is the toughest, however we are predicting that England will finish top, although we don’t think that they will win every game after a really poor run of results so far in 2022. Wales and USA will most likely fight it out for second place and it could well be a piece of quality from Gareth Bale or Aaron Ramsey that will take Rob Page’s side through to the knockout stages.

Verdict: 1st England - 2nd Wales

Group C - Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Argentina

By the time the World Cup kicks-off it will have been almost three and a half years since Argentina last lost a match. That defeat was all the way back in 2019 to Brazil and since then they have beaten their South American rivals twice as well as playing out a goalless draw. We think Lionel Messi could well do something special in Qatar at potentially his last World Cup and would not put any off backing them to lift the trophy in December. Argentina look by far the most likely side to top Group C and we’re backing Poland to also make it through. With Robert Lewandowski in great form for Barcelona and with a stiffer spine to their squad than Mexico, we think the Poles will have the edge on the two other sides in this group besides Argentina. 

Verdict: 1st Argentina, 2nd Poland

Group D - France, Tunisia, Denmark, Australia

Oliver Giroud is now just two goals behind Thierry Henry in the all time top scorers list for the French National team, and Les Blues come into the tournament as the second favourites behind Brazil priced at 6/1 with most firms. We don’t think topping this group will be as straightforward as many punters think but it doesn’t take an expert here to realise that both of the European sides in this group look a cut above the other pair. Denmark should be easily capable of beating Australia and Tunisia and we think they will follow France home on what could be an interesting group to follow

Verdict: 1st France, 2nd Denmark

Group E - Costa Rica, Japan, Germany, Spain

Group E looks an absolute belter with two of World football’s heavyweights being drawn alongside each other in Germany and Spain. In a similar situation to Group D we have two teams here who possess a significant amount of quality over the two other sides in Costa Rica and Japan. Spain may not have an abundance of world-class strikers at their disposal but they showed flashes at Euro 2020 of what is to come from this side with top talents such as Pedri and Gavi. We see Spain going really deep into this tournament and think it will be Luis Enrique’s side who finish top of the pile with Germany in second. 

Verdict: 1st Spain, 2nd Germany

Group F - Belgium, Canada, Morocco. Croatia 

Moving on to Group F and here we find Canada, Croatia, Morocco and Belgium in what potentially could be one of the more difficult groups to predict. Both Canada and Morocco should not be overlooked here and have players who are capable of producing moments of magic to cause a potential upset. Belgium’s so called Golden generation may be on the decline but with Kevin De Bruyne still at the peak of his powers it’s hard not to see them qualifying and we think they can take top spot. Croatia may not be anywhere near the levels they achieved at the most recent World Cup when making the final in Russia but they look the wise play to finish as runners up in what could be a tight group. It’s also worth noting that Croatia have qualified for Nations League finals, where they finished top of a group that included both France and Demark.

Verdict: 1st Belgium, 2nd Croatia 

Group G - Cameroon, Switzerland, Serbia, Brazil

It’s been 20 years since Brazil last lifted the World Cup trophy, but they head to Qatar as the bookmaker favourites at just 4/1. Neymar is another player who could set a record out in the Middle East as he is currently just two goals behind Pele in the all time top scorer charts for Brazil. There is no denying that their squad is stacked with talent and we see them as one of the only sides who are likely to take a possible nine points from nine in the group stages. In Aleksandar Mitrovic, Serbia have a striker who knows how to find the net having scored  

51 league goals in his last 53 league appearances at club level for Fulham. This predatory instinct  could well be the difference in what look like tight games between the trio of Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon.

Verdict: 1st Brazil, 2nd Serbia

Group H - Ghana, Portugal, Uruguay, South Korea

Raphael Leao, Crisitano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva…Portugal have an array of excellent attacking talents at their disposal heading to Qatar. That’s before we’ve mentioned some of their top quality defenders in the form of Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo, both of Manchester City. Portugal can often underwhelm at tournaments and only one won a match in normal time when crowned European Champions back in 2016. Group H looks an exciting one and we are predicting Portugal to come out in top spot, with Uruguay being the other side that qualifies for the latter stages of the tournament.

Verdict: 1st Portugal, 2nd Uruguay

Combining these eight forecast picks from each of the World Cup groups currently pays 2170/1 with bookmaker bet365.