Amidst an ongoing storm of controversy off the pitch, the football at the 2022 World Cup will finally get underway on Sunday as hosts Qatar take on Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium.

The contest will be Qatar's first outing on the grandest stage, and they take on an Ecuadorian side looking to reach the last 16 for only the second time in their history.

However, they are arguably the two biggest underdogs to do so from Group A, which also contains Netherlands and Africa Cup of Nations holders Senegal.

Getting off to a winning start is all the more important, then, and recent history suggests that Sunday's contest will be a relatively high-scoring affair.

There was a time when World Cup openers were drab games in which teams were more focused on avoiding defeat rather than kicking their campaign off with a victory.

Indeed, not a single goal was scored in a World Cup curtain-raiser from 1966 to 1978, with four successive tournaments kicking off with 0-0 stalemates.

That has not been the case recently, though, with the switch to having the host nation appearing in the opening game from 2006 seemingly injecting a much-needed burst of goals into those matches.

Just nine goals were scored in 10 opening matches from 1966 to 2002, but the last four have seen 17 fly in at an average of 4.25 per game.

Four years ago, hosts Russia got their tournament off to a flier with a 5-0 hammering of Saudi Arabia - the biggest opening-day World Cup win since Italy's 7-1 rout of USA in 1934.

The last time the opening game was held on a Sunday came in 1982, when Belgium kicked off an action-packed tournament with a shock victory over holders Argentina.

Qatar will be looking to pull off a shock of their own, and they have won all three of their previous matches at the Al Bayt Stadium by an aggregate scoreline of 9-0.

The hosts also have striker Almoez Ali in their ranks, and he will look to resurrect the form that saw him score a record nine goals from 10 shots in target during the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

Ecuador have no shortage of goals throughout their squad either, with Gustavo Alfaro's side plundering a national record 27 during qualifying for the tournament.

Left-back Pervis Estupinan created 22 chances for his teammates during that qualifying campaign, which is more than any other defender managed.

Written by
Barney Corkhill