2022 World Cup barrage draw: Czech Republic to play Sweden, one of the big favourites will not advance

The qualification phase for the World Cup in Qatar is reaching its peak. Today’s draw determined 6 pairs that can still fight for a ticket to the World Championship. Who will the Czechs face and what are their chances? Which favourites have not been favoured by the lottery?

The Czechs will face Sweden

The Czech team qualified for this stage thanks to their successful Nations League, and they took part in the draw from an unseeded position. They were at risk of facing one of the two football giants – Italy or Portugal.

And that didn’t happen. The lot was rather favourable to the Czechs. They will face Sweden in the battle to qualify for the World Cup. A relatively playable opponent, who will also have to do without the sidelined Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The match will take place in Sweden, the winner of this duel will face the better of the Russia-Poland pair.

Italy or Portugal will not take part in the championship

Friday’s draw also brought a bizarre and rather unexpected situation. Both Italy (to play North Macedonia) and Portugal (to play Turkey) were drawn in the same part of the pool, which means that they will face each other in the final. So it is clear that one of these football giants will miss the 2022 World Cup. A World Cup without the recent European champions would be a truly unexpected bizarreness.

For both Portugal and Italy, this draw is very unfortunate. Especially for Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese star wanted to say goodbye to his national career at the World Cup in Qatar. But now there is a real risk that he will have to hang up his national football boots a little earlier.

The format of the knockout fights is as follows. The first round (semi-finals) and the second round (finals) are always played to just one match. The semifinals will be played on March 24, the final is scheduled for March 29.

The complete draw for the 2022 WCH PO::

Source: Twitter