The FIFA World Cup 2022, arguably football’s biggest event, will kick off on Sunday amidst allegations of human rights violations surrounding the host country Qatar. In the first match of the tournament, Qatar will take on Ecuador at the Al Bayet stadium. 

The match will start after the World Cup opening ceremony, where big names like Shakira and Pitbull will be performing. Starting on Sunday, the tournament will go on till December 18, 2022 when the match to crown the champions will be played. 

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When is the kick off? 

The Group A match between Qatar and Ecuador will start at 9:30 pm IST. It will mark Qatar’s first match ever in the tournament with qualification coming by virtue of being the host nation. On the other hand for Ecuador, it will be the fourth appearance in the World Cup – their first since 2014.

Qatar will most likely be captained by Hassan Al-Haydos, the forward for Al Sadd, formerly coached by Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez. Enner Valencia, the Fenerbache forward, will be captaining Ecuador in the math.

Although Qatar is expected to mount a strong challenge for the South American team, Ecuador are the favourites to pull through and emerge victorious in the match. However, since it is the World Cup, we all know that anything can happen.

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Where to watch Qatar vs Ecuador? 

The Qatar vs Ecuador match will be live telecast in India on the Sports 18 channel. It will be streamed online on the Jio Cinemas app, which is available on both Android TV and smartphones.

The broadcasting rights for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in India were bought by Mukesh Ambani owned Viacom 18. Earlier, it was being said that the matches will stream on the Viacom 18 app Voot, but it is now confirmed that Jio Cinemas is where the matches can be seen.