Favourites Italy and Portugal or a duel between Real Madrid teammates. What are the next barrage battles?

The semifinals of the barrage start their rounds on Thursday evening, but not all teams are going into action. Due to the war in Ukraine, two matches have been cancelled or postponed, but interesting duels await us.

The World Cup barrage is now not played as a double-header, but in three rounds, where teams have to go through the pitfalls of the semi-finals and the final.

The most charged part is definitely the part with the winners of the last two European Championships. Italy will face North Macedonia, Portugal will challenge Turkey. The winners of these duels will battle it out for a ticket to Qatar.

Italy is the clear favourite. A draw in Northern Ireland in the last round cost them direct qualification, but they should have no problem with the Macedonians. The country of two million people has been on the rise recently, even making it to the Euros last year, but they probably won’t stand much of a chance against the winners of the whole tournament.

Portugal have an extremely loaded squad. Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, João Felix, Diogo Jota, Rubén Dias or João Cancelo. But the last two won’t start, Dias is injured and not in the nomination at all, Cancelo can’t play against Turkey because of a card penalty.

Even so, the Portuguese are big favourites. Serbia’s goal in the 90th minute took away their direct promotion. They should get past Turkey, but a duel with Italy would be very tight.

There won’t be a second match in our part of the pool. Russia has been disqualified for provoking a war in Ukraine, so Poland will go through without a fight. In the next part of the bracket Scotland was supposed to play Ukraine, but they postponed the match because of the situation in the country.

The winner of this duel will face the winner of the match between Wales and Austria. Real Madrid teammates Gareth Bale and David Alaba will lead their teams into battle. This clash is probably the most evenly matched and you would be hard pressed to find a favourite.

Barrage:

Italy – North Macedonia
Portugal – Turkey

Russia – Poland
Sweden – Czech Republic

Scotland – Ukraine
Wales – Austria

Source:: FIFA