The 2022 World Cup kicks off with Group A opening the action as hosts Qatar face Ecuador on Sunday while Netherlands - favourites with Betfred to top the group - kick-off their World Cup campaign on Monday against Senegal.
Bookies are predicting a battle for second-place between Senegal and Ecuador with Louis van Gaal's Dutch national side odds-on to secure the top spot in the group. Meanwhile, Qatar, ranked 50th in the world, are tipped for a group stage campaign to forget with many tipping England to have a better chance of winning the competition than Qatar actually winning their group.
Senegal boss Aliou Cisse will be without talisman Sadio Mane as the African Cup of Nations champions look to better their last World Cup appearance after crashing out of the group stages in 2018. The Lions of Teranga, however, managed to reach the quarter-finals back in 2002 in their first ever World Cup appearance.
Here are the odds of who will top the group this winter:
Netherlands - 4/9
The Netherlands are the heavy favourites at 4/9 with Betfred to secure top spot in Group A. Head coach Louis van Gaal is in his third stint as Oranje boss and will be leading them in his second World Cup after guiding his national side to third-place in the 2014 World Cup - which was the last time they qualified for the competition.
Senegal - 9/2
The African Cup of Nations champions will still have Sadio Mane in their squad despite early reports suggesting he will be ruled out of the competition entirely. Mane, 30, suffered a leg injury while playing for Bayern Munich but the former Liverpool forward's setback is not thought to be as bad as first thought.
They will, however, have a tough battle on their hands to secure second-place, according to bookies Betfred with a certain South American side with plenty of talent in the squad.
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Ecuador - 11/2
At 11/2 to win the group, Ecuador look set to have an exciting contest on their hands with Senegal to secure second place and qualify to the round of 16. La Tri, guided by Argentina Gustavo Alfaro, will be going to their fourth World Cup having qualified for 2002, 2006 and 2014's editions of the competition.
However, they have only managed to get out of the group stage once but at 11/10 to repeat their success back in 2006 but equally Senegal 10/11 so the bookies expect a hard-fought match when these two meet. But with exciting Premier League talent like Pervis Estupinan, Jeremy Sarmiento and Moises Caicedo along with former West Ham United striker and all-time top scorer Enner Valencia they could well be the dark horses in this World Cup.
Qatar - 10/1
The hosts who have never experienced a World Cup event make their debut but many of the bookies are expecting Qatar to finish bottom of the table. They could well surprise a few people but the suggestion that they can qualify would be dismissed quickly when they have odds of 10/1 to win the group and 7/2 to qualify.
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