2022 World Cup: Revisiting ESPN’s Qatar World Cup predictions from 2018

The 2018 World Cup was one of the most enjoyable editions to date. England lost to Croatia in the semi-finals and France in Moscow. ESPN made a number of predictions for the 2022 edition.

The original prediction that the big footballing nations Italy, the USA, Netherlands, Chile and Cameroon would return was incorrect. Italy failed to reach their second World Cup in a row following their loss at home to North Macedonia in the qualification playoffs. Cameroon, The Netherlands and The United States all returned and made an impact.

ESPN predicted that Cristiano Ronaldo would retire after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Ronaldo was dropped by Portugal for the knockout stages and they lost to Morocco. He will play until Euro 2024.

ESPN's 2018 World Cup predictions from 2018 were spot on. Qatar were unfancied coming into the World cup and lived down to expectations with three defeats in a relatively easy group.

All five African teams exited at the group stage in Russia. Morocco became the first African semi-finalist.

Kylian Mbappe scored in the 2018 World Cup final and has since become a star of his generation. He has five goals in this tournament and is in with a golden chance of winning the Golden Boot.

2022 World Cup is coming up. ESPN has already made their predictions for the Qatar World cup.

VAR was introduced in the Premier League at the start of the 2019-20 season. It has not been without controversy, with VAR being questioned in nearly every game.

ESPN predicted that Timo Werner, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Phil Foden will win the Golden Boot, Golden Glove and the best young player of the tournament. The player award predictions haven't aged well as Werner was ruled out through injury and Donarumm's Italy weren't even at the World Cup. Iran went out in the groups again but performed admirably under pressure.