Portugal and Italy hope to avoid Lewandowski in the play-off

Italy and Portugal will know this Friday who will be their first rivals in the playoff playoff to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Both teams will be part of Pot 1 of the draw that takes place in Zurich and in which the six best runners-up of the group stage of the European classification are, so they will not be able to face each other in the semifinal of the repechage. Next to them, The teams from Scotland, Russia, Sweden and Wales are also seeded.

The great rival to avoid for all of them is Lewandowski’s Poland. Pot 2 is completed by North Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria and the Czech Republic (These last two are in the playoffs thanks to their role in the Nations League).

The six playoff semifinal duels will be held as a single match at home for the teams in Pot 1 on March 24, 2022 and the champions of said tie will play three finals on March 29, 2022., from which will come the three European teams that are missing to complete the European quota in Qatar 2022.

The route to decide how the finalists are framed is also decided in the draw and in them Italy and Portugal could coincide. If so, one of the two would be out of the World Cup.