World Cup 2022: Qatar ends World Cup campaign with worst host country performance ever

Qatar became the first World Cup host country to get eliminated after its first two games following a 3-1 loss to Senegal on Friday and clinched the worst performance ever by a host country on Tuesday.

On Friday, it became mathematically impossible for the 2022 World Cup hosts to be one of the top two teams in Group A and make it to the next round. The Netherlands and Ecuador each won their first games of the tournament — Ecuador beat Qatar 2-0 — and tied 1-1 on Friday.

On Tuesday, Qatar lost 2-0 to the Netherlands to finish its World Cup campaign with three losses and a -6 goal differential. Qatar was outscored 7-1.

Qatar was a long shot to make it to the knockout rounds entering the tournament, but its elimination after two games is nothing short of a massive disappointment for a country that had been preparing for the World Cup for over a decade. Qatar’s national soccer team infrastructure was built for the tournament and the national team played in events like the North American Gold Cup to get prepped for the World Cup.

Qatar joins South Africa as the only host countries to get knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage. South Africa tied Mexico to open its World Cup but its win over France in the final group match wasn’t enough for it to move on as Mexico advanced via goal difference.

And while South Africa was an easy team to root for 12 years ago, there are undoubtedly millions of people across the globe who are happy that Qatar’s World Cup is ending in the group stage given the myriad controversies that surround this tournament. According to the United States Department of Justice, multiple FIFA officials received bribes to vote for Qatar as the host of the tournament. And after Qatar got the World Cup bid, its poor treatment of thousands of migrant workers who helped construct the stadiums has been a black mark on the tournament along with the country’s porous human rights record.