The play-off draw of the World Cup 2022, which will be held for the first time in history in the fall of next year in Qatar, was held on Friday.
We will not have the opportunity to watch Portugal or Italy at the next World Cup. The draw brought these two rivals together, who will play in the finals if they eliminate Turkey and Northern Macedonia.
The national team led by Cristiano Ronaldo and the European champion from 2016 were poor in the last two major competitions.
At the 2018 World Cup and at this year’s Euro 2020, the Portuguese were on both occasions eliminated in the round of 16.
In the semifinals, they will play against Turkey, who last participated in the 2002 World Cup and were third in the tournament.
If Portugal don’t make it to the World Cup, Fernando Santos will almost certainly be dismissed from his role.
The big question will then be whether Ronaldo will have the opportunity play in the World Cup once again.
It will be extremely frustrating for Italy If they didn’t secure a place in the World Cup for the second time in a row. Italy didn’t play in Russia, so they missed the World Cup for the first time in 60 years.
Roberto Mancini later went on to revive Italy and won the European title this summer during Euro 2020.
At the next World Cup, we could watch Wales for the first time since 1958, when this island country participated in the World Cup for the only time. To watch them in the final of the play-off, they will first have to eliminate Austria.
Then we could watch another big derby in the final if Scotland, which last played at the 1998 World Cup, defeated Ukraine.
All play-off matches will be played in March next year when we will get the remaining participants in the World Cup from Europe.
