A shocking result in the World Cup play-off draw... Italy or Portugal?

The absence of a major team from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was confirmed after the draw for the European play-off to qualify for the finals put Italy and Portugal, the two champions of the last two editions of the European Cup, on the same track, which means that their qualification together is out of the accounts.


The draw, which was drawn on Friday in Zurich, put Italy and Portugal in the third track against North Macedonia and Turkey, respectively, which means that if they pass the latter two, they will meet in the final of this track to determine which of them will reach the finals.


The European play-off, which is divided into three tracks, will take place on March 24 for the semi-final matches and on March 29 for the three final matches.

*European Supplement (March 24 and 29, 2022):

The first track:


Wales, Austria,


Scotland, Ukraine

The second track:


Russia - Poland


- Sweden - Czech Republic

Third track:


Italy - North Macedonia,


Portugal - Turkey

Notes

:


- The two winning teams in the semi-finals of each track will face each other in a final match in order to determine the identity of the three European teams that will join the Qatar 2022 finals with the ten teams that qualified as the champions of their groups in the qualifiers of the old continent.


The semi-finals of the three tracks will be held on March 24, with the three final matches to be held on March 29.


- Continental play-offs (June 13 and 14, 2022): 5th Asian qualifiers - 4th North, Central American and Caribbean qualifiers (CONCACAF), and 5th South American qualifiers - Oceania champions.


- The winner of these two matches qualifies for the finals (the identity of the continental supplement teams has not yet been decided).


The teams qualified so far to the finals: Qatar (the host country), Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland and the Netherlands (for Europe), Brazil and Argentina (for South America).

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