One year after the World Cup, 13 national teams are certain that they are in Qatar, while Italy awaits the playoffs and collects negative signals from the A League:
moving the championship day of March 20 to the moment is not a viable hypothesis
. Having defined the other eleven national teams that will compete for the last three European places from 24 March, the qualifying framework of the other continents is gradually being completed, with Africa where, however, much is still open. During the night the number of qualified for the final phase of the
World Championships in Qatar (21 November to 18 December 2022
)
rose to 13
, but more than half of the teams are still missing, which will come out of the qualifying groups divided continent by continent.
The teams already qualified are the 10 European winners of their respective groups, plus
Qatar,
which hosts the event and is admitted by right; but there are also
Brazil
and
Argentina
, who broke the pass with the 0-0 at home against rivals Selecao. Together with the two South Americans, who could soon be joined by
Ecuador
, and the
host
Qatar
, they are now sure of a place - among the teams of the Old Continent -
Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, England, Holland, Serbia, Spain
and
Switzerland
.
In Africa the situation has to be defined, the same goes for Asia.
In South America, Chile and Uruguay are at risk.
Other teams, including
Italy, the reigning European champion, will have to go through the risky appendix of the Playoffs
, which does not include direct elimination challenges as in other circumstances:
12 European national teams will be forced to play off between them
. You are seeded and you are not:
only three of them will go to the
Qatar
World
Cup, but only after passing through the semifinals and a final.
This is the complete picture of the seeded players who will play the semi-finals at home; the finals, on the other hand, will be played on a neutral field after a draw:
Portugal, Scotland, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Wales
. The unseeded, on the other hand, are
Turkey, Poland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Austria and the Czech Republic
.
The
draw for the pairings of the European Playoffs will take place on the 26th next
; the matches, on the other hand, will be played with the formula of
a mini-tournament on 24 and 25 March 2022 (semi-finals), on 28 and 29 March the following three finals
. The 12 teams will be divided into
three groups of 4 each
. The groups will consist of 2 seeded and 2 unseeded. The two seeded players will play against the two unseeded in the semifinals, in a single match, and the two winners will then compete in the final which, again in a single match, will decide the qualification. From the 3 groups, therefore, the last 3 qualified for the next World Cup will come out.
In
Africa
, on the other hand, after a first phase with
54 teams
, 1
0 groups of four teams each
were created by drawing lots
. The 10 winners will move on to the next phase which includes five direct matches with a round trip
. The five winners qualify for the World Cup. Here are the qualified for the third and final phase:
Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco
and
the Democratic Republic of Congo
. The
eliminations of South Africa and Ivory Coast
(Kessié's national team) are sensational, but it was inevitable given that there were two big names in both groups. The top seeds for the Playoffs have been drawn:
the five seeded teams are Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria,
unseeded will be
Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali and Congo
.
The draw is scheduled for
18 December
.
In
Asia
at the moment three national teams seem very close to the pass for Qatar: they are
Iran
and
South Korea
in Group A,
Saudi Arabia
in Group B.
Japan
and
Australia
will fight to the end for the last available place.
The
China
is almost out.