Glenn Hoddle’s World Cup Predictions: Winners, Dark Horses and England’s Star Man

Former England manager Glenn Hoddle has made his World Cup predictions and believes Qatar has plenty of surprises in store for 2022.

Hoddle has no clear favorite to win this year’s tournament and believes there are at least six countries that could become champions, aside from the various dark horses and minnows that could upset the group stage odds.

The former Three Lions star believes England can struggle but will give themselves a great opportunity to give their all if their star players can get off to a flying start.

Only spoken underground sportsvia Betfair, here are Hoddle’s predictions for the 2022 World Cup:

Who will be world champion?

I think England is in that small group of about six countries that could win. If I were betting on it, I’d probably say Brazil.

I think it’s fairly open, there will be some favorites, Brazil is one, but I’m not sure if they’re popular favorites. There is no outstanding team that you think will definitely win.

I think Brazil ticks a lot of boxes, they look pretty solid in the back and they have that flair on the other side of the pitch.

I think they struck the right balance. To win a World Cup you need a goalkeeper who plays really well and then you can build from there and I think they have two goalkeepers [Alisson and Ederson] which are very solid.

Who is the dark horses?

I think Denmark had a great euro and they want to build on that. They come in under the radar as always. They recently beat France.

Maybe they don’t have a finisher, an absolute striker who you think will score five or six goals for them. But they have many goalscorers in the squad. They actually score all over the field.

I wouldn’t leave out teams like Portugal and Belgium either. Everyone always thinks the sell-by date has passed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these teams went deep as well.

Once you’re in the semi-finals, anything can happen. You get the right decisions, like penalty kicks, a result for the opponent – all these things are important.

So Denmark, Portugal, Belgium. Let’s face it, if one of them becomes world champion, it would be a surprise.

Don’t be surprised if Iran does well in the group stage. They are a good side and will be quite clumsy to play in this first game for England.

I think it will be interesting to see how Wales do against Iran, that will be key. If they beat Iran I think they qualify, but don’t be surprised if Iran surprises everyone.

There are some teams that we don’t know too much about, like Ecuador, that are decent, that could surprise us.

Football should not come home

I think if we had made it to the semi-finals we would have done quite well. But like I said, anything can happen in the semi-finals.

It’s all about reaching the climax at the right time. What’s going on with England at the moment with the results is quite negative, but I don’t see that as a problem. I don’t think it will affect the participation of this team in this World Cup.

You have to look at it from the other side and think people really want to play against England now? Maybe not, you know. Yes we have our Achilles heels defensively but I will still say what we have up front and in midfield we should cause a lot of problems for a lot of teams.

It’s not an easy group, it’s an easier group than some of the others, but Iran, Wales and America are very difficult sides to play against.

You don’t play an open game of football; They will defend themselves deeply and in great numbers and it is up to us to open them up and we are not at our best when we do that.

I see we are going through the group stage, but I think that is why we will have some hiccups and difficulties along the way.

Conveniently, we play Wales last in these group matches. When we have done our work in the first two games, it will be fun to play against Wales. You wouldn’t want to go into this game to win because it’s a very, very hard game. All games come from the home country.

When we played against Scotland [at Euro 2020] or when we played Wales in France [Euro 2016] we just scribbled our way through. They are not fun games, they are not pretty, they are not easy to play. The passion for it and everything.

Who is England’s most important player?

I hope it’s Phil Foden. He’s not often on the ball for England, whether it’s his fault or the system, but I think if we get him on the ball like he does for City, he’s a special talent.

I would like to see him come out as one of the best players in the tournament. He can score, he can create and he works hard, he knows his defensive role. So he’s an all-round midfielder, but I’d like to see him in the striker position, behind Kane pulling the strings.

Clearly the young man [Jude] Bellingham is a great player. He has tremendous experience for a young person. This can also be an exciting time for him.

Who will be the star of the breakthrough in Qatar?

I think it will be difficult to get him, but I think the boy in Spain, Pedri, would be interesting. I think he is a very good talent who plays on a very good football team.

I’m not sure if Spain has enough firepower to continue, but I do see him playing in the Premier League, but of course a lot depends on it. Does he want to go abroad or not etc. But he would certainly be someone who would cheer up the Premier League.

A few young people are walking around. Bellingham is one such. Big clubs are already after him and you will see him move to the Premier League at some point.

Who will win the Golden Boot?

You know what, I’ll be very positive here and I think if England get really deep into the tournament I’ll go for Kane.

Some of those players will score free kicks, possibly Neymar, [Lionel] Messi – but they don’t score from set pieces. England is dangerous from set pieces and Harry Kane scores from set pieces.

Add that to what I think England has now [James] madison, [Mason] mountain, foden, [Jack] Grealish, Trent Alexander Arnold. If we play well, he gets a lot of service.

The key for England in these group games is when we are 1-0 up these teams have to open up and then I see Harry scoring a lot of goals.

How will Lionel Messi fare?

It is heavy, there are shoulders that weigh heavily. Neymar would be one and Messi would be one.

Messi is fantastic, a brilliant player, but he’s always been like this [Diego] Maradona’s scenario of winning a World Cup in a very mediocre team has always weighed heavily on his shoulders.

He’s someone who wants to put that right. He is in a solid team that will have a good chance.

And I think Neymar too. He’s played well this season and is a bit of a struggle. He may be more determined than usual and understands that Brazil is a very good team and that this could be his moment.

So there’s really a little bit of pressure on the two of them. They may be playing a mediocre tournament, not a bad tournament, but everyone expects a great World Cup from them.

[Kylian] Mbappé too, but he’s young enough to come back if things don’t work out and he’s already won a World Cup so he can relax a bit more.

Can Ronaldo regain his form?

This World Cup is coming, with what happened to him at club level, I think he’s chewing. I think Ronaldo is really determined to prove Man United wrong, to prove to everyone in the world that he is still one of the best players in the world.

It is quite clear that his United story is over and he is going to close his book, but I think, more importantly, he will use that momentum for what happened before the World Cup.

So I think now is a good time for Portugal and they can take advantage of it. And they also have a strong team, the XI they send will have a nice balance and if they give him the opportunities, if they create a lot for him, he can have a wonderful tournament.

For me he is still one of the best finishers United have. I look at other players and think ‘You know what, Ronaldo would have put that ball in the net if he had the chance’ and I think he could do that for Portugal.

I wish you were here?

That’s how it should be [Erling] Haaland, even if he had played in a team, of course that wouldn’t have been fun [Norway] but he must be.

and [Sadio] mane I know he’s on the team, but it’s still a huge loss for Senegal, if the witch doctor can do his part and get him out.

But in the end, it’s a huge blow to her. It’s like England lose Kane, thank goodness we didn’t.