World Cup Group F Predictions & Picks: Belgium, Croatia, Canada and Morocco

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Written by Vincenzo Pugliese
World Cup Group F Predictions & Picks: Belgium, Croatia, Canada and Morocco

The 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar early next week and Dimers.com soccer writer and former professional Vincenzo Pugliese breaks down each of the groups, starting with Group F. featuring Belgium, Croatia, Canada and Morocco. As a wise-man once said, "without data, you're just another person with an opinion", so naturally we've let DimersBOT loose on the World Cup draw and the world's best predictive analytics model has simulated the entire 2022 World Cup over 10,000 times to identify which nations can win the tournament and which nations are just making up the numbers. Using the world-renowned Monte Carlo Simulations method, Dimers gives you the most wholistic view of the tournament and which teams are most likely to progress from their group and reach the knockout stages.

Download your complete guide to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar below.

 

Group F Prediction: Belgium

The clock is ticking and time is running out for this golden generation of Belgian football. In Russia 2018, the Belgian Red Devils walked away with a third place medal, their best ever finish, where they fell to eventual champion France in the semi-finals.

Head Manager, Roberto Martinez will be on the touchline for his second consecutive World Cup where he will have a strong core of players to rely on in Qatar and hope to one-up their showing from last time out.

Throughout their qualifiers, Martinez’s men went undefeated with an impressive 6 wins and 2 draws to top their group with an outstanding 25-6 goal difference.

The Red Devils will surely look towards talisman Romelu Lukaku to replicate, or even better, his four-goal tally in Russia. Behind him expect to see none-other than the creative genius in Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian captain is notorious for doing it on the big-stage and now the question is will he lead his nation to a first ever international triumph before it's too late?

Alongside KDB is the veteran, Eden Hazard. Hazard has mostly underwhelmed at Real Madrid of late, but when the 31 year-old puts on that Red Devils kit, there is no telling what he will do.

The speed and creativity that Hazard and De Bruyne possess will prove close to unstoppable should they both be at their best. Paired with the power of Lukaku up top, teams will struggle to contain the trident.

With that, it’s no surprise the Red Devils will enter Qatar at -175 odds of winning Group F and +1700 of walking away as champions, something Dimers has them at just a 6.5% chance of achieving.

 

MORE: World Cup Match Predictions

Group F Prediction: Croatia

Croatia made an inspiring run back in 2018 when they finished as runner-up led by captain and Ballon d’Or winner that year, Luka Modric.

The 37-year old footballing icon who has, time and time again, continued to defy the odds, is set to lead his nation into another major international tournament - one which could possibly be his last.

Croatia, will again be led by Zlatko Dalic on the touchline, who is well prepared to have another impressive showing on the world’s stage. Dalic will have a strong core of players from their amazing run in Russia, mixed in with some new emerging talent who will be hungry to make a name for themselves.

Croatia actually had a pretty tough qualifying group, with the likes of Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia to name a few opponents they had to get past. In the end however, Croatia was able to scrape by just one point ahead of the 2018 hosts.

A 7-2-1 record is still very impressive, and with their goal-difference count one would think Croatia has an out-and-out talisman leading the line. Rather, Croatia continues to be one of those few teams where goals can come from anyone on the pitch.

Ivan Perisic was their top-scorer (3) in Russia, while Luka Modric and a few others contributed along the way. All in all it is a strong team that has had an incredible past couple of years.

Given the limited quality of players they have at their disposal, what they have managed to create is quite incredible, so do not be surprised if this group of players reaches the latter stages once again. With Luka Modric in your team, pretty much anything is possible.

With that, the 2018 runner-up will enter the World Cup with odds of +250 to win the group and +5000 to lift the World Cup. Dimers has Croatia as a 1.7% chance of being crowned Champion.

RELATED: Every Nations' Chances and Odds of Winning the World Cup

 

Group F Prediction: Canada

For Canada, just qualifying for Football’s showpiece event is a major achievement. Les Rouges are set to make only their second ever appearance at world's biggest sporting event, after last appearing 36-years ago in the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

In 86’, Canada finished dead last in their group and also failed to register a single goal. But the Canadians are back, and there's more excitement around this group than ever before.

John Herdman, who was appointed as the national team’s Head Manager back in January 2018, has done a tremendous job of turning this group around. Canada finished ahead of fellow North Americans the U.S.A. and Mexico to secure the top-spot in their Concacaf qualifiers with an impressive 8-4-2 record, which included convincing wins over the likes of Mexico, Costa Rica, U.S.A, Panama and Jamaica.

Herdman’s men even topped off their qualification with the most goals scored and fewest conceded (23-7). Canada will arrive in Qatar with several difference-makers, none bigger than the speedy Bayern Munich left-back, Alphonso Davies. The youngster was the first big Canadian name since Owen Hargreaves to thrive on the European stage, helping the German club to a 6th UEFA Champions League triumph in 2020 and earning himself a place in the 2020 FIFA World XI team in the process.

A very immature team on the world stage, Canada will use this event as an exercise to familiarize themselves with the competitiveness of major competitions, and to better prepare themselves for the 2026 World Cup on home soil. Given all that, Canada is likely to lose all of their World Cup group-stage matches this time around. They will enter Qatar 2022 with odds of +300 to get out of Group F at a probability of 29.8% to make the knockout stages.

RELATED: Betting Previews for every World Cup matchup

Group F Prediction: Morocco

The likes of Morocco is what will make this group quite interesting to follow. The African side who are led by star players in Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi are set to take on the challenge in 2022.

To get to Qatar, Morocco made qualification look very easy. They cruised past their CAF qualifying group with an impressive 6-0-0 record, before knocking out the DR of Congo in a two-legged fixture to book their ticket into the 2022 FIFA World Cup Finals.

The Atlas Lions will be led by Manager Walid Regragui, who was appointed in August 2022. Regragui was a former player who retired in 2011. He made 45 appearances for the Moroccan national team and was also the nation's Assistant Manager between 2012-2013.

Regragui is therefore no stranger to working with the national side and has done it on the big stage, recently managing Moroccan club, Wydad AC to a 2021/22 CAF Champions League triumph. The 47 year-old manager will be on the touchline in Qatar and he will have quite a talented group to work with.

A very strong and well balanced team that could truly cause other teams some problems in this group. With a healthy team and a solid game-plan, this group can very much upset the likes of Croatia and Belgium to exit the group and advance into the knockout stages.

With that, Morocco is listed as +250 odds of qualifying past Group F with a 38.3% probability of doing so.

Did you know that you can simulate the World Cup bracket here and see how far your team can go at Qatar 2022?

World Cup Group F: Best Players

Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium)

Achraf Hakimi (Morocco)

Alphonso Davies (Canada)

Luka Modric (Croatia)

Jonathan David (Canada)

Hakim Ziyech (Morocco)

Marcelo Brozovic (Croatia)

Romelu Lukaku (Belgium)

Leandro Trossard (Belgium)

Where To Bet On World Cup Group F?

All of the major US sportsbooks will take bets on Group F at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Operators such as FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, PointsBet, Caesars and Bet365 will all be after your business during the soccer World Cup, so you will have access to a number of different welcome offers and sportsbook promo codes to get you off to a winning start. The best of these offers is the Bet $5, Win $150 from DraftKings Sportsbook. You can claim it here.

Betting on the World Cup is simple. All you have to do is create an account with any of the sportsbooks listed on Dimers, make an initial deposit, and then start betting. Think carefully about that first deposit though, as a lot of the offers allow you to leverage the amount you throw down for your first bet. A $100 first bet is going to get you more value than a first bet of $10, for instance.

World Cup Group F: Picks

Matchday 1 Predictions

Morocco 0, Croatia 1

Belgium 1, Canada 0

Matchday 2 Predictions

Belgium 2, Morocco 0

Croatia 1, Canada 1

Matchday 3 Predictions

Croatia 1, Belgium 1

Canada 2, Morocco 0

World Cup Group F: Predicted Standings

Country Points
Belgium 7
Croatia 5
Canada 4
Morocco 0

2022 World Cup Group F

Download your complete guide to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar below.

 

Where To Watch World Cup Group F?

You can watch these Group F matches and every match of the 2022 World Cup on the FOX Sports family of networks. Fox Sports is the tournament's official English-language broadcast partner in the United States. You can also stream full World Cup match replays for free on the Fox Sports app.

Wednesday, Nov. 23

Morocco vs. Croatia, 5AM ET on FS1
Belgium vs. Canada, 2PM ET on FOX

Sunday, Nov. 27

Belgium vs. Morocco, 8AM ET on FS1
Croatia vs. Canada, 11AM ET on FS1

Thursday, Dec. 1

Croatia vs. Belgium, 10AM ET on *FOX
Canada vs. Morocco, 10AM ET on *FS1

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Sports Writer Vincenzo Pugliese joined Dimers.com in May 2022. A Rutgers University graduate with a degree in Media Studies and Journalism, Vincenzo captained the Rutgers Men’s Soccer team and played professionally in Denmark for VSK Aarhus.

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