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Both Italy, who won the continental title in July, and Portugal,
who were winners of Euro 2016, will be on tenterhooks as they
await the outcome of the draw for the March playoffs for the 12
European countries who remain in contention for three places at
the World Cup.
They are the teams who finished runners-up in their group, plus
two more who qualified by virtue of being the best two Nations
League group winners who did not finish in the top two of the
Qatar 2022 preliminaries.
Italy’s failure to win in Northern Ireland on Monday and
Portugal’s home loss to Serbia the night before, has condemned
the two heavyweights to needing to play two more games if they
are to go to Qatar.
One consolation is they are both among the seeds for the Nov. 26
draw -- which guarantees a home game in the semi-finals and
therefore a major advantage.
The 12 contenders will be drawn into three separate four-team
paths. There are a set of semi-finals in each stream on March 24
with the winners advancing to a decisive trio of "finals" on
March 29.
Home advantage for the three finals will be decided by a draw
but in the semi-finals it is Italy, Portugal, Russia, Scotland,
Sweden and Wales who are guaranteed a home match -- as the six
highest-ranked teams among the group runners-up in the
qualifiers -- against one of Austria, the Czech Republic, North
Macedonia, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine.
There is no other determinant for the draw so Italy and Portugal
could land up in the same section, kept apart in the semis but
possibly facing one another in a deciding tie.
BITTER MEMORIES
In previous years, playoffs were determined over two legs, home
and away, but with qualification for Qatar needing to be
completed by the end of March, there is a no second chance this
time round.
Italy will have bitter memories of losing to Sweden in the
playoffs for Russia 2018, condemning them to miss a World Cup
for the first time since 1958.
Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo will no doubt remind his team
that they triumphed over Sweden in a playoff ahead of the 2014
finals.
Two past World Cup runners-up came through the European
play-offs: Germany beat Ukraine to qualify for the 2002
tournament, going on to lose the final to Brazil, while Croatia
edged Greece before emerging surprise runners-up at Russia 2018.
(Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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