World Cup 2022 updates: Hosts Qatar out after second defeat

England has missed the opportunity to be the first team to qualify for the last 16 of the World Cup with a game to spare on Friday as they were held to a 0-0 draw by the United States.

A draw in their final group game against Wales on November 29 will allow England to progress to the knockout stages, while a victory would seal first place.

The US, who have drawn their first two games, will play Iran also on November 29, knowing a win will send them into the last 16.

Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk insists that his side will improve at the World Cup after Friday’s match that ended in a 1-1 draw with Ecuador.

“We know that in ball possession we can do better, but we are at the start of the tournament. We will improve.”

The Netherlands will now go into their last game against already-eliminated World Cup hosts Qatar, levelled on four points with Ecuador at the top of Group A, needing at least a draw with Qatar to secure a place in the next round.

“Now it is time to recover. We have everything in our own hands. We have to be ready for Qatar and show a very good performance there and hopefully win the game,” Van Dijk said.

Qatar’s early World Cup exit will not be fatal for the country’s football development, manager Felix Sanchez has said, after the hosts became the first team to be eliminated.

Sanchez believes football will continue to develop in the tiny Gulf state despite the disappointment, and targeted a return to the world’s biggest stage.

“The World Cup will finish, but football will continue here,” said the Spaniard, who led Qatar to the 2019 Asian Cup title.

“It’s a football country and they want to keep developing young talent so they can reach the senior team. We can keep on competing within our limitations in Asia.

“By doing that, we’ll get more experience and we’ll be able to play in more competitions like this.”

Qatar struggled at this tournament because of “pressure”, especially during their opening game against Ecuador, says Gemma Soler, a football analyst.

The “young team under construction” haven’t been competing for so many months, and this has made the “competitive level lower”, Soler told Al Jazeera.

While they were able to win the Asian Cup, it has been eight months since that win, she noted.

Another analyst, Juan Arango, said that when the host nation is eliminated in a World Cup, there is a bit of a “damp run on the enthusiasm of the fans” but, in Qatar, it’s an “atypical situation”.

“On top of supporting their own team, … they also support Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, etc,” Arango told Al Jazeera. “That enthusiasm will continue.”

After beating Qatar 3-1 earlier today, Senegal’s coach Aliou Cisse has expressed optimism, saying he believes an African team could very possibly win the World Cup.

After a string of unexpected results thus far, Cisse believes “things have changed” in world football and he sees no reason why this can’t be Africa’s year.

“All the teams who are competing at this World Cup are teams who are worthy of being here. It’s not like 30 or 35 years ago where the big fish were completely eating the smaller teams alive.”

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Iranians poured into Tehran’s streets on foot, by scooter and car to celebrate their national team’s World Cup win over Wales.

An explosion of joy greeted Iran’s 2-0 victory. The faces piling into Martyr’s Square, in the centre of the capital, were all smiles.

Amid waving flags parents danced with children on their shoulders to the sound of plastic trumpets, while a cacophony of music escaped from cars stuck in a sprawling traffic jam.

“I am delighted with this victory because my passion is football, not politics,” said Mehdi, 18.

“In the previous match, we were under terrible pressure because of the situation in the country, but today, we decided to go for it,” said Reza, 24, who came to watch the match with a friend.

The Netherlands and Ecuador draw with both scoring one goal each, resulting in the host nation Qatar to be the first team exiting the World Cup.

The draw gave both the Dutch and Ecuador one point apiece to move them to four points in Group A, leaving Qatar with zero points after losing 3-1 to Senegal earlier.

Al Jazeera’s Youmna el-Sayed, reporting from the besieged Gaza Strip, said Palestinians in the enclave are celebrating their love for football during the World Cup.

“Decorations and flags representing all of the World Cup football teams” hang in the streets of Gaza, el-Sayed said.

While many around the world are traveling to Qatar to watch the World Cup matches in person, most in Gaza cannot due to Israel’s continuing brutal blockade.

A huge public screen donated by Qatar has provided an opportunity for spectators to gather and watch the matches amid frequent power outages.

“Our aim is to allow the resident of the besieged Gaza Strip to live the atmosphere of the tournament as if he’s in one of Qatar’s stadiums,” Abdulrahman al-Khaldi, head of media with the Qatari committee in Gaza, said.

Kosovo’s sports minister has protested after photos emerged showing that the Serbia team had hung a flag in their changing room at the World Cup reclaiming his country.

Hajrulla Ceku tweeted “disgraceful images from Serbia locker room, displaying hateful, xenophobic and genocidal messages towards Kosova, while exploiting FIFA World Cup platform”.

The photograph was taken in Serbia’s dressing room before they lost 2-0 to Brazil. It showed, hanging from two lockers, a version of the Serbian flag with a map that included Kosovo as part of the country and stamped with the slogan, “There will be no surrender.”

Ceku said they expect concrete actions from FIFA considering Kosovo is a full FIFA and UEFA member since 2016.

Forward Enner Valencia equalises for Ecuador just 5 minutes into the second half of the Netherlands vs Ecuador game.

Senegal coach Aliou Cisse has said he needs to go back to the drawing board to find a way to beat Ecuador in his side’s last game in Group A at the World Cup to have a chance of progressing to the round of 16.

Senegal followed their 2-0 defeat against the Netherlands in their opening match to win 3-1 against Qatar and restore their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage of the tournament.

“We have to think about the appropriate approach to the last match. We need to win to have a chance to qualify for the last 16,” Cisse told a news conference.

“Our concentration must be better as we could have avoided the goal that we conceded [against Qatar], but the Ecuador match will be different.”

Cisse indicated that his team could have finished the match with a bigger margin.

The first half of the Netherlands vs Ecuador match is over with Netherlands leading the game 1-0.

Coach Graham Arnold told his Australia side “to muscle up” for what promises to be a physical World Cup clash against Tunisia in front of a hostile crowd on Saturday.

Australia’s World Cup campaign will be in grave danger if they don’t win and it will be akin to an away match in Qatar with an estimated 30,000 Tunisian fans expected to back their side at Al Janoub Stadium.

“We’ll be in their faces, we’ll be up high and chasing and pressing, we’ll be on the front foot,” the 59-year-old Arnold told a pre-match news conference.

“The Tunisians like physical games and we’ve got to match the physical aspect,” he added. “We’ve got to muscle up and give it our best.”

France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has said that footballers should be allowed to express their values and wear rainbow-themed armbands, after FIFA threatened to issue yellow cards to any players who did so.

“There are rules for what happens on the field, but I think it’s a good thing for players to be able to express themselves on the values that we obviously completely share, while respecting the rules of the tournament,” said Borne at a news conference in Berlin.

Germany’s players made headlines earlier this week when the team lined up for their pre-match photo with their hands covering their mouths after FIFA’s threat to sanction players wearing the “OneLove” armband.

Seven European nations, including Germany, had previously planned for their captains to wear the armband, but backed down over FIFA’s warning.

Juan Arango, a football analyst, said he does not think the Netherlands will walk away with the World Cup trophy this year.

“It’s another team with a great deal of talent, but you still kind of have doubts in certain situations,” Arango told Al Jazeera.

“When you start matching them up against France … against Spain or Brazil … to me, they still need that little bit of edge and quality, especially up top,” he said.

There is a bright pop of colour that greets commuters as they exit Al Mansoura metro station.

Bright flowers, birds, and mountains form a mural of what is simply known as truck art in Pakistan.

This is because Pakistani truck art group Phool Patti Creative was invited by the Qatar Museums Authority to bring this uniquely Pakistani form of art in a bid to add local colour across the country.

Netherlands vs Ecuador is about to start!

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Both teams kicked off their World Cup campaigns with victories, but who will win today?

Senegal became the first country from Africa to record a win at this World Cup and their fans outside Al Thumama Stadium are in a party mood.

“We didn’t let Qatar move the ball or have time on the ball,” Pathe Toure told Al Jazeera, smiling. “Now, it is time to enjoy the win and performance,” he added.

Fans of Qatar were in a quite different mood.

“Very bad performance to be honest,” said Jassim al-Jaber. “Watching the match, it was obvious they were scared … They looked unprepared and not match fit,” he added.

The Dutch team will be hoping to secure another good result against Ecuador, already buoyant after defeating host Qatar.

Read everything you need to know about the coming match starting at 7pm local time (16:00 GMT).