Bombshell: the draw leaves Portugal or Italy out of Qatar

The bombshell jumped in the playoff draw: at least one of the last two European champions, Italy or Portugal, will be left out of the next World Cup in Qatar 2022. Both teams were framed on the same route of the playoff of the repechage, which forces them, in case of overcoming the first round, to face in a hypothetical final for a single place in the next World Cup.

For the duel between Portugal and Italy to take place, they must first beat Turkey and North Macedonia respectively in the first round. Both European champions will act as locals in these semifinals, while the final will be played in the stadium of the Portugal-Turkey winner, that is, if Italy passes, the ‘azzurra’ will play their ticket to the World Cup to a single match on the field alien. Italy’s nightmare of missing out on the World Cup for the second time in a row after failing to qualify for Russia 2018 is getting closer and closer to reality.

On the other hand, lGareth Bale’s Wales and David Alaba’s Austria will meet in a semi-final on Route A. The winner of this duel will play at home against the winner of Scotland-Ukraine. Finally, if Lewandowski wants to be in Qatar, his Poland will have to win at home to Russia and later receive the victorious Sweden-Czech Republic.

The semifinals will be played on March 24, 2022 while the three finals will be played on March 29. These three places for the World Cup for which twelve teams are competing close the quota of the 13 European teams that will be in Qatar 2022 together with Spain, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia and Croatia.

Route A

Semifinal 1: Scotland-Ukraine

Semifinal 2: Wales-Austria (the winner will play the final at home)

Route B

Semifinal 1: Russia-Poland (the winner will play the final at home)

Semifinal 2: Sweden-Czech Republic

Route C

Semifinal 1: Italy-Macedonia del Norte

Semifinal 2: Portugal-Turkey (the winner will play the final at home)