Last year’s European Championship (Euro) winners Italy and Portugal, played by Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Thiago Mendes, who picked Portugal in a draw on the 27th. [AFP=연합뉴스]
According to the World Cup Europe play-off (PO) match decided on the 27th (Korean time) through a draw held in Zurich, Switzerland, Italy will face North Macedonia and Portugal in the PO semi-final scheduled for March next year.
In Europe, the 10 teams that placed first in each group in the preliminary round took direct tickets to Qatar, and a total of 12 teams, including the 10 second-place teams and 2 teams with the best results in the UEFA Nations League among other countries. In this PO, the owners of the remaining 3 cards are determined.
In the playoffs, each team is divided into 4 teams for one ticket and competes in the semi-finals and finals. If Italy and Portugal win each semi-final, they will face off in the final. The team that wins this final goes to the World Cup.
In addition, Russia-Poland and Sweden-Czech will play in the semi-finals and the winners will face each other in the final. Scotland-Ukraine and Wales-Austria will face off in the semi-finals.
The intercontinental PO battles were decided between Asia-South America and North Central America-Oceania. The winner of the 3rd place match in the Asian final qualifier, which is being divided into Groups A and B, advances to the intercontinental PO, and competes with the 5th place team in the South American qualifier for Qatar. The 4th place in the North and Central American qualifiers and the winner of the Oceania qualifiers will also face off for one ticket.
The intercontinental PO will be held in a single match between June 13-14 next year in a neutral country.
Reporter Park So-young park.soyoung0914@joongang.co.kr
.
