A little over a year before the 2022 World Cup which will bring together 32 nations (November 21 - December 18, 2022), ten teams have already qualified in Europe where twelve selections will fight for the last three tickets for Qatar, Africa knows its ten jump-offs who will seek the five places on the continent, and in South America Argentina has joined Brazil.
Here is the point continent by continent.
Europe (13 qualifying places, 10 countries already qualified)
Denmark became the first nation to land its ticket on October 12.
He has since been imitated by nine other teams: Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland and finally the Netherlands on Tuesday.
The ten second-ranked teams (Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Ukraine, Wales, Scotland, Turkey, Russia, Poland and North Macedonia) and the top two teams from the last League of Nations not qualified (Czech Republic and Austria) will participate in March to dams.
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They will then be divided into three tables of four teams.
Within each of them will be played the semi-finals (March 24 and 25) and a final (March 28 and 29) in a single match, with extra time and penalty shootouts.
The last three European tickets will go to the winners of the three finals.
Africa (5 qualifying places, no qualified team)
The 2nd round of qualifying ended on Tuesday: Algeria, Nigeria, Tunisia and Cameroon joined the six other teams qualified for the 3rd and final round after finishing at the top of their group (Mali, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco, Ghana and DR Congo).
These ten teams will participate in play-offs in the form of two-way matches which will determine the five qualifiers for Qatar.
The draw for these meetings will take place on December 18 in Doha.
GROUP STAGES ✅
FINAL ROUND 🔜
👇 A look at how things stand in each group following the end of the second round of the 2022 #WCQ!
📋 # WorldCup pic.twitter.com/TXODznwIdy
- CAF (@CAF_Online) November 16, 2021
South America (4 or 5 qualifying places, two countries already qualified)
Brazil, who have never missed a World Cup finals, validated their ticket to Qatar by beating Colombia on November 12.
He was joined on Tuesday by Argentina who despite their draw against Seleçao at home (0-0) took advantage of the missteps of Chile, Colombia and Uruguay to officially validate their ticket four days from the end.
Ecuador, winner in Chile, took a big step to grab the third ticket.
The last directly qualifying place and the place of intercontinental play-off will be fiercely contested between Colombia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and even Bolivia, which are held in two points.
Asia (5 or 6 qualifying places, a country already qualified)
Qatar, the host country, already has its ticket in its pocket.
Twelve teams are currently participating in the third and final round of qualifying which will end in March 2022. They are split into two groups of six and compete in home and away matches.
The first two from each group will go to Qatar.
After six of the 10 days, Iran and South Korea have a large margin in Group A, Saudi Arabia dominates Group B ahead of Japan, itself followed by Australia.
The two thirds (currently Emirates in Group A and Australia in Group B) then face each other in a two-way match, with the winner taking part in a two-way intercontinental play-off against a representative from Oceania, Asia or of Concacaf.
North, Central America and the Caribbean (3 or 4 qualifying places, none qualifying)
Eight teams compete in the final round, a 14-day mini-championship that ends on March 30.
The first three (Canada, United States, Mexico after 8 days) will go to Qatar.
The 4th ranked team (currently Panama) will compete in an intercontinental jump-off.
🌎 Canada 🍁 leapfrog Mexico and USA into top spot on the @Concacaf #WorldCup standings 🔢
🇯🇲 Jamaica 1-1 USA 🇺🇸
🇵🇦 Panama 2-1 El Salvador 🇸🇻
🇨🇷 Costa Rica 2-1 Honduras 🇭🇳
🇨🇦 Canada 2-1 Mexico 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/UyjbLALISY
- FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 17, 2021
Oceania (0 or 1 qualifying place, none qualifying)
Due to the Covid-19, the qualifications which were to start in September 2020 could not take place.
OFC, the umbrella body for football in this area, announced in September that it would organize, in agreement with Fifa, a qualifying tournament in March 2022 in Qatar.
Its winner will participate in an intercontinental jump-off.
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