Portugal will be in play-off access to the 2022 World Cup and already knows that he will be one of six entrants to the semi-final, a one-handed stage, and in which he will host as one of the top six runners-up in the European Qualifiers Stage.
Otherwise, the Portuguese team learned on Tuesday evening that they would be accompanied by Italy: the European champion drew in Northern Ireland, saw Switzerland defeat Bulgaria, and was also unable to obtain a direct passport to Qatar. This means that the last two countries to become European champions will be competing in the playoffs for access to the World Cup – Italy already played in 2018, at the time losing to Sweden.
Apart from Italy, Poland, owned by Paulo Sousa, also joined the group of ten teams with a definite playoff spot, despite a home defeat to Hungary.
The team led by Fernando Santos has 17 points in eight games and will be in the first basket. November 26 draw… Russia has already been defined as well. And here comes something to keep in mind in these final reports: the Russians scored 22 points in Group H, but since there are groups of five teams and other groups of six, they added points to the last classified in their group (in this case six points against Malta) are not taken into account in the equation, which will be meaningful for the mathematical calculations of all runners-up in the group. Even so, the Russian national team with 16 points will always be in the top six runners-up.
For the playoff draw, Pot 1, as explained above, will comprise the top six runners-up from the qualifying groups. Pot 2 will have the worst four seconds, plus the top two UEFA Nations League Group winners of the 2020/2021 season (in league order A to D) who did not occupy any of the top two groups.
Who is already in the playoffs: ten out of 12 specific places, but with differences
In total, ten out of 12 places have been identified in the playoffs. Apart from Portugal and Russia, Scotland, Sweden, North Macedonia, Poland and Italy (all of them ranked second in the group), Austria (qualifying through the League of Nations), Wales and the Czech Republic (one of them). finishing second in Group E, second through the League of Nations) already in the playoffs. Of these, however, Sweden, Wales, Czech Republic and Poland still do not know if they will make it to Pot 1 or 2. They still depend on the last round in the groups to be completed by playing between them on Tuesday.
North Macedonia, second in Group J, falls into basket 2. They had 18 points, but only 12 of them counted because they were also in a group of six and had six points against Liechtenstein, the last in their group. Austria will also be in that basket: it was fourth in Group F but appears to have been beaten off by the League of Nations (LN) for winning Group B1 of the 2020/2021 competition. Another choice that goes to play-off through the League of Nations it will be, as already mentioned, Wales (because he won the LN B4 group) or the Czech Republic (the winner of the B2 group).
CASES NEEDED:
Buddy 1: PORTUGAL, Russia, Scotland, Italy
Buddy 2: North Macedonia, Austria
Bring 1 or 2 (?): Sweden, Wales, Czech Republic, Poland + finalists in groups D, G
At the same time, Portugal is already confident that it will be able to accept North Macedonia or Austria in the semifinals, but along the way it can have names of both strong and stronger ones.
Who will fill the other four playoff spots?
One of the vacancies will be from group D: enter Finland Where Ukraine, one of them will take second place. One more team will qualify from Group G from the playoffs, between Netherlands, Turkey e Norway…
Remembering or formatting
The 12-team 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier draw will determine three paths, four teams each, to play solo in the semi-finals (24 and 25 March 2022). ). The winners of the semi-finals advance to the final of each path, also played in one game (March 28 and 29, 2022), and the winners of these three finals qualify for the 2022 World Cup. Six losers remain on the road. semi-final, plus three losers in the final of each path. In the final, in contrast to the semi-final, the home team is drawn by lot.
For example, what might be the case with a national team: if Portugal makes it through the semi-finals, they will find in the final the winner of another semi-finals on their way.
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