2022 World Cup: USA vs Wales prediction, odds and preview

Wales will make their first appearance at the World Cup finals in 64 years when they play the USA in their Group B opening match on Monday night in Al Rayyan.

The first round of Group B matches will be concluded with this match, which includes England and Iran and has the potential to be quite competitive.

After disappointingly missing the 2018 World Cup finals due to a loss in Trinidad & Tobago in their final qualifier, the USA is back in the tournament.

The top four countries this time around were separated by just three points in a very difficult qualifying series, but the USA was able to secure one of the three automatic slots, slightly ahead of Costa Rica.

After qualifying, the USA defeated Morocco and Grenada and earned a draw against Uruguay. However, a draw against El Salvador as well as losses to Japan and Saudi Arabia in September friendlies caused some unrest.

In four of their last seven tournament appearances, the United States has advanced to the knockout round, but in their previous nine matches against European opponents, they have failed to do so. If they want to advance this time, they will undoubtedly need to break that streak by having two UEFA nations in their group.

Wales’ performance leading up to the finals does not inspire much hope either; they have not triumphed since beating Ukraine 1-0 in the playoffs to secure their spot in Qatar.

Rob Page’s team only earned one point in their most recent Nations League campaign—a 1-1 draw with Belgium—and were thus demoted from League A after suffering home and away losses to Poland and the Netherlands.

That was very different from their performance in their World Cup qualifying group, where despite losing their opening match against Belgium, Wales went undefeated in the following seven games to finish ahead of the Czech Republic.

Gareth Bale will once again be the center of attention as the Welsh team’s star player after his heroics in the playoffs, which included scoring twice against Austria in the semifinal and providing the assist for Andriy Yarmolenko’s own goal in the championship game.

Bale will want to make sure Wales advances past the group stage once more because this could be his final match wearing the national team colors. Wales advanced past the group stage in both of their most recent outings at big tournaments, Euro 2016 and 2020.