This article is part of our World Cup series.
Our 2022 World Cup betting previews
Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H
Group B is the talking point for a lot of people around the world. For starters, England are one of the favorites to win the World Cup after just missing at the Euros two years ago. Wales barely got past Ukraine in the playoff but are still the second-best team in the group according to the odds. The United States are the next challenger to England and it was only 12 years ago that they played in the same group at the 2010 World Cup.
Similar to this situation, England were one of the bigger favorites to win it all, but they only managed five points from their group and finished second to the USA due to a tiebreaker. Even at the Euros two years ago, England weren't overly dominant, scoring two goals in group stages, same as the World Cup.
No matter what happened in the past, England are -240 to win Group B, well ahead of Wales at +490, USA at +700 and Iran at +1300.
GROUP B WINNER
If you like England to win the group, there's not a ton of value in them and given their style of play, it's hard to take them at -240. Yes, they are the most talented team of the bunch, but two of their matches could go scoreless and they'd be left with five points again.
Wales are similar to England in that they aren't going to score a ton of goals and will be hoping to hold opposing teams scoreless. They haven't played in a World Cup since 1958 and they most recently put in a mediocre performance at Euro 2020. They scored three goals in four matches played in the Euros and were knocked out in the quarter-finals 4-0 against Denmark. It's somewhat surprising they have better odds than the United States, which means taking them at +490 to win the group or even +100 to advance may not be a great bet. Gareth Bale seems to always find a way, but they could easily fail to score against both England and USA.
The USA will get increasingly more money as the tournament approaches, as they were +700 as of June to win the group. For the most part, this isn't the same team that missed the World Cup four years ago. They did what was required to play a meaningless match in the final qualifier and recent positive results against Mexico show where they've improved the last few years. Finding cohesion will continue to be a question, but international players like Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Antonee Robinson highlight what the squad can be. If you don't think USA can top the group, getting them at +125 is reasonable, though similar to Wales, scoring could be an issue.
USA to win Group B +700
Iran qualified for the prior two World Cups, finishing third in their group in 2018 and fourth in 2014. Four years ago, they took a point from Portugal and beat Morocco, which could be deemed as positives despite finishing third. They have a couple recognizable players in Sardar Azmoun (Bayer Leverkusen) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Feyenoord), but there's not much to take away from qualification except that they finished first, above Korea in the table. It's nearly impossible to see them winning the group at +1300, but advancing past group stages for the first time ever at +230 is an option. Maybe the competition wasn't great in qualifiers, but they ran through the opposition with 15 goals scored and four allowed in 10 matches.
BEST MATCHUP TO BET
Nov. 25, England v. USA, Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor
Unsurprisingly, the England and USA matchup may be one of the most bet on games of group stages. It's the second round of matches, so there will be plenty of meaning for both of them no matter how opening games go. As of June at DraftKings, England were -155 to win compared to +425 for USA, while the draw was +275.
It's hard picking a game that's six months away with lineups still unknown, but this feels like an easy game to bet under 2.5 goals (-120). England have one of the best defenses in the competition and USA have often struggled to score against higher-end opponents. Throw in recent results for England in international competitions and a 1-0 result seems most likely for this one. Going further, I'll be betting a lot of first half unders in this tournament and for this game, under .5 goals in the 1H is +190.
Under 2.5 goals -120
1H under .5 goals +190
The first-half under was one of my favorite bets during Euro 2020, as international matches tend to be lower scoring, especially early in matches. For the most part, national teams don't have as much training together and when thrown in a match, especially in the World Cup, things are a bit more nervy than you'd expect. United States will want to keep this low scoring to aim for that 1-0 win if not scoreless draw and getting +190 on no goals in the first half seems too good to pass up.
