Favorable lot: Russia to play Poland in the 2022 World Cup play-off semifinals

Initially, participation in the play-off matches for the right to go to the World Cup in Qatar did not bode well for the Russian team.

The domestic national team was twice forced to go through an additional qualification round for the championship of the planet and in both cases failed.

In 1997, Italy stood in its way, and in 2009 - Slovenia.

This time, the road of Valery Karpin's charges promised to become even more difficult, because they had to meet with two rivals at once.

The only thing is that in the semifinals, thanks to their successful performance in the qualifying stage, they were among the seeded.

Thus, in the first match, Russia at home was supposed to host Turkey, Poland, North Macedonia, Austria or the Czech Republic.

Ukraine also turned out to be unseed, but could not meet with its neighbor according to the decision of UEFA, which is separating these teams for political reasons.

But in the final, if they got there, they had to measure their strength with another seeded team.

In addition to Scotland, Sweden and Wales, there was a risk of hitting the reigning European champions Italians or Portuguese.

Fortunately, the draw turned out to be completely supportive of the domestic team and harsh in relation to the giants, together defining them in the path C. Thus, one of the top national teams of the continent is guaranteed not to take part in the 2022 World Cup.

At the same time, in the semifinals, "Squadra Azzurra" will play with North Macedonia, and Fernando Santos' charges - with Turkey.

Russia, along with Sweden, fell into the path of B. Scandinavians, despite the presence of 40-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovich, can be called the best option in the decisive confrontation.

At the same time, they still have to go through the uncompromising Czech Republic.

A serious advantage of Karpin's team in the final, if it breaks through there, will be the opportunity to play at home again.

All three decisive confrontations for the remaining tickets to the world championship will be held on March 29.

Luck was also accompanied by the Ukrainian national team, which also avoided meeting with the giants.

The neighbors in the semifinals will face off with perhaps the most convenient seeded rival - Scotland, and if they succeed, they will compete with the winner of the Wales - Austria pair for the right to go to the world championship.

But in the semifinals, the domestic team got far from the weakest opponent - Poland.

The fans' dreams of a meeting with North Macedonia were not destined to come true, but hitting the Balkans and Swedes at the same time would be truly fabulous luck.

And the Poles cannot be called an impassable rival, especially since the game with them will also take place at home on March 24.

Everything depends on the super bomber of “Bavaria” Robert Lewandowski in his native team, and the attack is sharpened exclusively on the star.

And this is not surprising, because in 128 matches for the national team, he scored 74 goals.

Enough in the composition of the Poles and other notable performers.

Experienced goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny is the main goalkeeper at Juventus.

Midfielder Piotr Zieliński defends the colors of Napoli, the leader in Serie A. And forwards Arkadiusz Milik and Krzysztof Piatek have long been heard in European football.

There are also a couple of people who are currently playing in the RPL.

Without Krasnodar's midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, it's hard to imagine a support zone.

And the full-back of Lokomotiv Maciej Rybus, even at the age of 32, regularly receives playing practice in the national team.

Meanwhile, the line of defense can be called the weakest in the composition of the Poles.

Firstly, at the moment it does not feature a single star of the level of Lukasz Pischek.

For example, the center of defense most often appears the aged Kamil Glick, representing the Serie B club Benevento and Jan Bednarek, who plays for the missing stars from the sky in the Southampton Premier League.

And even in spite of the frequently used 3-5-2 formation, the national team concedes regularly.

In qualifying, she allowed even San Marino and Andorra to excel and kept her goal intact only in three meetings, two of which were with the indicated football dwarfs.

At Euro 2020, Poland conceded six goals in three games altogether.

And in general, if we look at the results of the last year, it is difficult to call the opponent a truly formidable team. In qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, he fought to the end for second place with modest Albania and Hungary, although he took points from England. And in the final stage of the continental championship he performed at the level of Russia - only one point scored in the group, albeit in the confrontation with Spain. At the same time, Slovakia (1: 2) and Sweden (2: 3), Paulo Souza's wards lost, and Lewandowski's three goals were not enough for them to enter the playoffs. They completely failed at the World Cup in Russia, where they took the last place in the passed group with Colombia, Japan and Senegal.

As for the face-to-face meetings, the last of them took place in June just before the Euro.

Opponents once upset each other, but the Russians were clearly “under pressure” and did not show any outstanding football.

Much more memorable was the match at the Euro 2012 group stage.

Then the opponents also dispersed in peace - 1: 1.

The hosts responded to the goal of Alan Dzagoev with a ball from Jakub Blaschikovski.

In total, the teams' paths crossed five times, and three games ended in a draw.

Once the teams managed to get a victory.