For the second time in a row, the Italian national football team found itself needing to pass the European play-off to reach the World Cup finals.
But the shock will be too great for the fans of the Italian national team (Azzori) in the event that their team fails to reach the World Championship for the second time in a row through the gate of the deciding supplement, which begins tomorrow, Thursday.
Football fans in Europe in particular, and the world in general, are awaiting the matches of this decisive play-off, which will topple at least one of the great and ancient teams on the European continent and in the World Cup tournaments. .
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The play-off events are being held this time differently than in the past, as the 10 teams that ranked second in their groups in the European qualifiers qualified for it, and two teams joined them through the European Nations League.
The 12 teams were divided into 3 tracks, each comprising 4 teams competing in the semi-finals and finals, so that the winner of each track qualified for the finals to complete the European continent’s seats in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The European supplement draw resulted in the teams of Scotland and Ukraine in the semi-finals of the first track, and this match was postponed at the request of Ukraine in light of the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war currently underway, while the teams of Wales and Austria meet tomorrow, Thursday, in the other confrontation in the final of this same track.
In the second track, the Polish national team was supposed to meet its Russian counterpart, but the International Football Association (FIFA) recently excluded the "Russian bear" from the qualifiers due to the Russian war on Ukraine.
Thus, the Polish team qualified for the final of this track, to meet next Tuesday with the winner of the other semi-final confrontation of this track, which will bring together, on Thursday, the teams of Sweden and the Czech Republic.
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In the third track, the Portuguese team will meet its Turkish counterpart, while the North Macedonia team will visit the Azzurri on Thursday.
The two matches on the third track attract the most attention, since this track will topple at least one of the Italian and Portuguese teams.
The Italian national team failed to reach the finals of the World Cup in Russia 2018.
The Azzurri fell in the play-offs in 2017 against their Swedish counterpart, to miss the finals for the first time after 14 consecutive participations in the finals since 1958.
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Therefore, the Azzurri supporters fear a new shock, especially as most of the nominations are directed towards an expected confrontation between the two champions of the last two editions of the European Nations Cup, where the Azzurri won the Euro 2020 title in mid-2021, while the Portuguese team won the Euro 2016 title in France.
While the confrontation with North Macedonia seems easy in theory, the Azzurri fears this match, especially since the North Macedonia team was one of the teams that contributed to the Azzurri’s absence from the 2018 World Cup, as the two teams’ match in Turin ended in a 1-1 draw after the Azzurri won 3 -2 in the first match at the opponent's court.
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In the second match in the semi-finals of the third track, the Portuguese team relies a lot on its veteran attacking star, Cristiano Ronaldo, in the face of the Turkish team, which lost all its previous five official matches against Portugal, the last of which was in Euro 2008.
The Portuguese national team will play the confrontation at home, but the Turkish team clings to the hope of facing the team led by Ronaldo, the team's historical scorer and the best international scorer for any player with his country, scoring 115 goals, surpassing the Iranian Ali Daei, the previous record holder.