Spain will play Sweden to avoid the World Cup play-off

Spain will have in the B Group as rivals in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup to Sweden, Greece, Georgia, and Kosovo, the latter a territory that has not yet been recognized as a country by the Government of our country. The Selection, one of the ten European seeds, have the privilege of playing in a group of five countries for their status as finalists of the Nations League. The qualification will run from March to November 2021. The goal is to reach first place in the group, which is the only way to get a direct ticket. If not, the play-off for Qatar 2022 will become a martyrdom of biblical proportions.

It will not be an easy path, since it is only worth being first in the group. Everything that is not that supposes suffering. But not only Spain will have to do its best. In practically all groups there are solvent candidates. In our Selection the strongest, on paper, is Sweden. But there are also other things where sparks will fly: Holland-Norway, Italy-Switzerland, Holland-Norway, England-Poland and Croatia-Russia are other examples.

Of the 55 European federations that have been drawn today in Zurich, only 13 will compete in the final phase of the World Cup in 2022. The ten champions of each qualifying group will do it directly. The second ten from each group will have to play a play-off to which the first two from the group of the Nations League will join. better positioned in the general classification who have not qualified directly for the World Cup or reach second place in the group. These twelve teams will fight for the three remaining places that will play qualifiers in March 2022. A diabolical play-off for a World Cup that will be the last with 32 teams. The next (2026), in the United States, Mexico and Canada, 48 countries will compete in a new format of 16 groups of three teams.

Despite so much difficulty, Spain has only missed five of the 21 editions of the World Cup, the last in 1974, almost 45 years ago. The National Team has been fixed continuously in the great football event since 1978. In addition, La Roja have not lost a game in the last six previous phases of the World Cup. Spain's last defeat in a qualifying match was almost 30 years ago, on March 31, 1993 (1-0) against Denmark. Since then, La Roja has chained 63 matches without knowing defeat.

The coronavirus pandemic, as is tradition, prevented FIFA from making the World Cup draw a football party. It was a telematic ceremony led by the director of FIFA competitions, Jaime Yarza, which was assisted by two former World Cup players: De Rossi and former Madrid player Rafa van der Vaart. Luis Enrique, national coach, followed the draw in the Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, together with the sports director of the Federation, José Francisco Molina.