Game schedule FIFA soccer World Cup 2022

Here you will find the game schedule for all the matches to be played during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022. 64 matches in total will take place during the World Cup. The tournament starts with group stage matches, where all of the teams will play three matches each. Under the tab Groups & Tables you can see the current standings among the teams.

The two best teams from every group will advance to the play-off, where it is “do or die”. The grand World Cup finale will be played on December 18 in Lusail Iconic Stadium. In our game schedule below we will list all the matches in the tournament, complete with information about which channels will show them during the World Championship 2022.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held in the Asian nation of Qatar, where the matches will take place in five different cities: Al-Khor, Al-Rayyan, Al-Wakrah, Lusail and the capital Doha. This will be the 22nd time the tournament takes place and the first time ever that the matches will be played in the Arab world. Because of the extreme heat the tournament will be played during the winter, also for the first time ever. Furthermore, Qatar is the smallest nation ever to have the honor of arranging this large soccer party which attracts millions of people from all over the World.

⏰ Time difference between US and Qatar

During winter there is a time difference of 8 hours between the east coast of the US and Qatar, so some matches will take place in the morning. All times in our game schedule above refer to US CST.

Future World Cups in soccer

Even though the upcoming tournament is yet to be played, it is already possible to look ahead towards the coming editions of the FIFA World Cup. It was decided in June 2018 that the next edition of the tournament, which will be held in 2026, will be arranged as a shared event by the US, Canada, and Mexico.

This will be the first time where three nations share the hosting, which is convenient as the number of nations participating will be increased. No less than 48 national teams will participate in the World Cup from the year 2026!

The qualifications for this tournament is most likely to start in 2024. Every continent will now be allocated more places in the tournament, for North and Central America this means 6 teams instead of 3.5.

📅 Complete game schedule of the 2022 FIFA World Cup

The group games of the tournament will take place between November 21st and December 2nd. When these matches have been played you can see which teams have advanced, as well as which opponent awaits them. The play-off will take place during the second half of the tournament and after every match played the number of remaining teams will decrease. Even if the group game matches are important in order to reach the play-off at all, it is the matches during the play-off that are the most important. At the most one team can manage to play seven matches during the tournament if they make it all the way to the fight for the medals.

During a championship a total of 64 matches are played, which means there are a lot of opportunities for goalscoring. On average 2.5 goals are scored per match in the tournament, but of course, there have been goalless matches as well as matches with multiple goals. Over the years the highest amount of goals during one single World Cup match was 12, which happened when Switzerland and Austria played each other in the 1950s. Meanwhile, there have been plenty of goalless matches where a penalty shoot-out has had to decide the outcome.

🏆 Did you know that…
…during the last three championships (2010, 2014, and 2018), the reigning champions have been knocked out in the group game. Who does not remember the shock when Germany finished last in their group during the World Cup in Russia? And with this it remains to be seen how France will perform during the World Championship 2022.

📆 Schedule for the group games in the World Cup

During the group game the days will be filled with exciting matches to watch. Thanks to the fact that the cities hosting the matches are very close there is no need to add days of travel to the game schedule. From early morning to late afternoon there will be soccer to watch and luckily the schedule and times are the same every day. This makes it easy to keep track of what is to come during the coming match days. The first group game matches will be played from November 21st to 24th and the second group game matches will take place between November 25th and 28th. During the period from November 29th to December 2nd things will finally be finished off in all eight groups.

The matches will start at 5.00 AM, 8.00 AM, 11 AM, and 2.00 PM CST. During the first and second match days there is never more than one match played, but in the last and final match all teams in the same group play at the same time. This is so the teams can not perform in a certain way to get a wanted position in the group.

🏅 Schedule for the play off in the World Cup

The World Cup play-off will start off on Saturday, December 3rd, where the round of 16 is the first thing waiting for the teams advancing to the play-off. These matches are played from December 3rd to December 6th and here the 16 teams will be reduced to 8. Thereafter two days without matches awaits before it is time for the four quarter-finals, which will take place on December 9th and 10th. The winners of these matches are the teams we will be following during the rest of the tournament.

Semi-finals are according to many people the most important matches, as they are the ones deciding whether the team will be guaranteed a World Cup medal or not. The two teams who win the semi-finals, which takes place on December 13th and 14th, will proceed to the big fight for the gold and silver medals. The losers will then compete for the bronze medal.

The big World Cup finale finishes off the whole championship on Sunday, December 18th and this is where we will find out which team will take over the title as the world’s best national team in soccer from the reigning champions France. On December 17th, the day before the finale, the bronze match will take place.

If you take a look at our game schedule for the play-off, it is not yet decided which teams will participate in the matches. It will be decided by the results of the group game, where getting as many points as possible is the important thing. However, there is a schedule prepared to determine which winners will be placed in the different matches, which makes it possible to see a team’s complete road to the title of champions.

⚽ Teams and groups in the 2022 FIFA World Cup

The 2022 FIFA World Cup accommodates 32 national teams from all over the World. The participating teams will be drawn into eight groups with four teams each, where they will all play one match against each other during the group games. While the tournament is being played you will be able to follow the actual positions on our page with all World Cup tables. To advance you need to finish at least second in your group, but you then need to count on a tougher opponent in the round of 16 than if you win your group.

The draw for the World Cup groups is scheduled to take place in April 2022. When all groups are ready we will list them down below.

The road to the 2022 FIFA World Cup – this is how the teams qualified

All of the teams who participate in the World Championship of soccer, apart from the host nation, have to qualify for a place. The qualifications for the 2022 FIFA World Cup started in 2019 and will be going on until the middle of 2022 when the final teams will be set.

For North and Central America the qualifications started in March 2021 with a first-round which lasted until June 2021. The six group winners then played a second round in June 2022 as well. The three winners from the second round will go on to the third round. In the third round, the US as well as the four other top-ranked teams will play the three winners from round 2. These qualification matches will go on until March 2022.

📺 Watch the FIFA World Cup on TV

It is FOX and TSN who will broadcast the matches from the FIFA World Cup. The stations will share the broadcasts and each show half the matches. If the US qualifies for the World Cup their matches will be shared between the channels as well, as fairly as possible. Apart from watching the games on regular TV, streaming options will also be available.

In our television schedule for the FIFA World Cup 2022 we will list which channel broadcast the matches.

📣 Discuss the FIFA World Cup 2022

In the comment section further down on this page you can share your thoughts about the tournament. We appreciate you keeping a good tone and gladly help to answer questions from other soccer lovers.

Successful nations in the World Championship of soccer

If you look in the rear-view mirror to past World Cups the statistics show that it’s the European national teams that have been the most successful in the tournament. European teams have amassed the largest amount of medals from the tournament, which was noticeable in the World Cup in Russia for example. When it was time for the quarter-finals during the FIFA World Cup 2018 as many as seven out of the eight nations were European. Since 1954 there has not been one single World Cup finale without at least one European team participating.
Apart from Europe, the South American nations have had great success in the World Cup as well. One team that stands out here is Brazil, which is the only nation in the world that has never missed a World Cup in soccer. The team also tops the gold league with five FIFA World Cup titles. The overall medal league however is topped by Germany, which has won twelve medals throughout the years.

The US is the only nation outside of Europe and South America that has managed to win a medal during the championship. This happened in 1930 when the team was awarded a bronze medal.