The World Cup is a ruthless competition and Tuesday evening proved it again.
Twenty-seven of the thirty-two contenders managed to qualify.
Conversely, some prestigious individuals and teams have also been excluded from the road leading to Qatar.
48 hours before the draw for the World Cup which will take place in Doha on Friday, it is time to take a new look at the present and the great absentees of the 21st World Cup.
Ciao Italia and Farewell Zlatan Ibrahimovic?
In Europe, a historic footballing nation will miss the planetary rendezvous.
This is Italy, four-time world champion and reigning European champion.
It was eliminated by Macedonia (0-1) in the play-off semi-finals last Thursday.
A huge blow.
Already absent in 2018, the Italians will therefore have to wait until 2026 and the transition to 48 teams, to hope to replay a World Cup, twelve years later.
For Zlatan Ibrahimovic, abstinence from the World Cup may be final.
Sweden were eliminated by Robert Lewandowski's Poland on Tuesday night (2-0).
At 40, the former Parisian has probably just turned the World Cup page for good with his selection.
For his part, Erling Haaland is young, but he too will not discover Qatar.
Norway did not qualify.
For Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it was probably the last chance to participate in a World Cup.
Icon sport Bildbyran / Icon Sport
On the other hand, at 37, Cristiano Ronaldo will be there for the World Cup, the fifth of his career.
He should equal the participation records of Lotthar Matthäus (Germany), Rafael Marquez (Mexico), Antonio Carbajal (Mexico) and Gianluigi Buffon (Italy).
With Portugal he will be one of the big outsiders of this World Cup.
On a collective level, all the former European world champions, apart from Italy, will be present.
The Netherlands will finally make their comeback after missing the 2018 edition, having played in three World Cup finals.
In June, the last European qualifier will be known between Ukraine, Scotland and Wales.
Sadio Mané stopped Mohamed Salah
Since the draw for the play-offs, pitting Sadio Mané's Senegal against Mohamed Salah's Egypt, it was obvious that one of Liverpool's two big stars was going to miss the World Cup.
It is finally Salah who will not be in Qatar.
The latter missed his shot on goal while Mané managed his to send Senegal to paradise.
If it's any consolation to Liverpool's Egyptian striker, he won't be the only African star not to be on the trip.
Thus Riyad Mahrez, African champion in 2019, was cruelly eliminated by Cameroon.
It all happened in the added time of the second leg.
The image of the evening: Djamel #Belmadi face against the ground after the qualification of Cameroon #ALGCMR
via @GettyImagesNews
📸 Ryad Kramdi pic.twitter.com/AFnHt9LtY6
— Cyril Morin (@cyrilmourinho) March 29, 2022
The Indomitable Lions are regulars at the World Cup, this will be their eighth participation.
Among the regular guests, we find Vahid Halilhodzic, the coach of Morocco.
After qualifying Ivory Coast in 2010, Algeria in 2014 and Japan in 2018, he has just sent the Atlas Lions to the World Cup.
With the Algerians, he had reached the round of 16 and he intends to repeat this performance.
An almost identical cast in South America and Asia
On these two continents, the years go by, but nothing or almost nothing changes.
In South America, the three world champions Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay qualified.
Ecuador, also present, is the only new team compared to the South American representatives of 2018. However, the Ecuadorians know the World Cup, since they were there in 2002, 2006 and 2014. trip in case of victory against Australia or the United Arab Emirates.
These two countries finished third in their group in Asia and will face each other in the pre-play-off.
Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and South Korea qualified directly for the World Cup.
Four countries already there in 2018.
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To conclude this international truce, the CONCACAF zone (North and Central America) will deliver its verdict on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
Canada has already secured its place, and will be making a comeback thirty-six years after its last participation.
Mexico and the United States are in a very favorable tie against Costa Rica, which risks settling for a play-off place.
In June, the loser of this three-way battle will challenge the winner of the meeting between New Zealand and the Solomon Islands, a meeting which will take place this Wednesday at 7 p.m.
At the end of these final meetings, Fifa will publish the monthly version of its ranking on Thursday, thus making it possible to know the distribution of the hats for the draw of the World Cup on Friday.
France is guaranteed to be in hat 1.