History Of World Cup Hosts Who Always Win In Opening Matches

Qatar National Team (Twitter @fifaworldcup)

JAKARTA - As has been a tradition since 2006, the host nation will play the official opening match of the FIFA World Cup. The fight with Ecuador will also be Qatar's debut at the 2022 World Cup finals.

Quoted from the official FIFA website, we take a look back through history to see how the hosts fare in the previous opening match.

Italy started hard

At the 1934 World Cup, the eight opening round matches were all played simultaneously. Hosts Italy faced the United States in Rome and certainly enjoyed playing in front of their own crowd, Gli Azzurri's 7-1 win laid the groundwork for their maiden world title.

Angelo Schiavio was the standout player of the day, scoring a hat-trick.

Brazil, Sweden and Chile all won

In 1950, Brazil beat Mexico 4–0 in the opening match at the Maracana. Eight years later, Sweden also beat Mexico 3-0 in Solna.

In 1962, four matches were played at once to start and run the tournament, and once again successful hosts, Chile beat Switzerland 3-1.

Deadlock in London and Mexico City

The opening matches for the host nation in the 1966 and 1970 World Cups were far more spectacular than ever. In the first official opening match of the 1966 World Cup, eventual champion England drew 0-0 with Uruguay at Wembley Stadium.

Then at the World Cup in Mexico in 1970, the host nation started the tournament against the Soviet Union, with over 100,000 fans at the Azteca Stadium watching the goalless draw.

Unbeatable

From 1974 to 2002, it was always the reigning champions who played the opening match, and it wasn't until 2006 that honor returned to the hosts. Germany (4-2 against Costa Rica in 2006), Brazil (3-1 against Croatia in 2014) and Russia (5-0 against Saudi Arabia in 2018) all recorded wins to kick off the World Cup they won.

South Africa, meanwhile, were held to a 1-1 draw by Mexico in 2010. To date, neither hosts have lost their opening World Cup match – a good sign for Qatar ahead of their meeting with Ecuador on November 21.