The likes of the Republic of Ireland, Croatia and Italy are looking to qualify for next summer’s finals in Russia through a one-off, do-or-die tie Sweden will take on Italy and the Republic of Ireland are set to clash with Denmark in the European second-place World Cup play-offs. Northern Ireland’s meet Switzerland and Croatia play against Greece in the other two ties to finalize the UEFA representatives at next summer’s tournament. The eight countries competing finished second in their groups in the first round of qualifying and will now play over two legs for a place at the finals.
It was a seeded draw, with Switzerland, Croatia, Denmark and Italy placed in one pot based on their position in the FIFA world rankings and Northern Ireland, Greece, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden going in the other. Northern Ireland, Croatia, Denmark and Sweden will play at home first, with the exact dates of the matches to be confirmed soon.
The second-place play-offs – known officially as UEFA’s second round of World Cup qualifying – are used to allocate the last four of Europe’s 13 places at the finals. Nine European teams qualify directly as the winners of their first-round qualification groups.
The runners up in those groups are then ranked by points and, if needed, a number of tiebreakers, with their results against the last-place team in their group discarded. This was due to the fact that two groups were originally going to have only five teams instead of six. In the end, Kosovo and Gibraltar joined UEFA to round out the groups, but the rules were not changed. The top-eight runners up qualify for the play-offs – with the ninth missing out where they are drawn against another team and will play home and away over two legs for a place at the World Cup finals. This year’s draw was seeded, with the teams split into two pots according to their position in FIFA’s world rankings. This year, UEFA will also have a 14th team at the finals because Russia have already qualified as hosts.
Source: Goal
