As FIFA and UEFA started down the path of complicating the qualifying process for the World Cup it is not as clear as it could be as who can qualify. In most previous World Cups the (best) second placed teams in UEFA groups would play off against each other and the winners would move to the World Cup.
It is different for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. As before the second placed teams have to go through a play off but they will be joined by best ranked teams from the 2020-2021 Nations League. This time all second placed teams qualified for this so called second round and they were joined by aforementioned best two from the Nations League. The two teams, Austria and Cech Republic, joined to make up a 12 team second round.
To whittle down 12 teams to three – UEFA has 13 spots in the World Cup – had the governing body come up with a process of dividing the teams into three ‘groups’ of four where a one leg semi final would lead to a one leg final.
Portugal, Turkey, Italy and North Macedonia were grouped together, Russia, Poland, Sweden and Czech Republic in another and Wales, Austria, Scotland and Ukraine in the third. This means one of Italy or Portugal, or both, won’t be in Qatar.
Things were further complicated as Russia were just banned due to the war in Ukraine. It is not clear who will take their spot. Perhaps Slovakia? The team that finished third in Russia’s first round group.
The semifinals are on March 24th and the finals on March 29, 2022.