2022 World Cup: No African team will qualify from group stage – Oxford Uni study

A new report published by Oxford University is predicting that no African team at the World Cup will progress beyond the group stages.

The report based on the Oxford mathematical model predicts route to the men’s FIFA World Cup whcih kicks off this weekend in Qatar.

It also predicts that the final of the tournament will be between Brazil and Belgium with the South Americans expected to prevail.

Africa’s representatives at the World Cup include Ghana, Cameroon, Tunisia, Senegal and Morocco.

Ghana in Group H along with Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea (Portugal, Uruguay to qualify). Senegal in Group A with Netherlands, Ecuador and hosts Qatar (Netherlands, Ecuador to qualify). Tunisia in Group D with Australia, Denmark and France (France, Denmark to qualify).

Morocco is in Group F with Belgium, Croatia and Canada (Belgium, Croatia to qualify) whiles Cameroon will take on Brazil, Switzerland and Serbia in Group G (Switzerland and Brazil to qualify).

The model – created by Oxford Mathematics researcher Joshua Bull – forecasts among others:

Wales to go out in the group stages

England to lose in the quarter-final

Argentina vs Brazil in the semi-final

Brazil to beat Belgium in the final

“The model simulated the group stages one million times and took the most common outcomes. The algorithm then simulated each knockout game 100,000 times,” part of the University’s post on social media read.

The model has been created by analysing team rating data from http://eloratings.net, focusing on every first-team international game since 2018, the post added.