The key to qualifying for the barrage: which results do the Czechs need?

The Czech national football team has a very difficult task ahead of it. Its chances of being seeded in the barrage are rather slim, but they do exist. Let’s take a look at the totality of the results.

From the ten qualifying groups, 10 teams will advance directly to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The 10 second-placed teams plus two teams from the Nations League will compete in the barrage. The six second-placed teams with the most points and best scores will go into the barrage seeded.

The Czechs are currently third in the table with 11 points. Portugal, Italy, Scotland and Russia are already assured of seeding in the barrage. Sweden and Poland are still in the last two places, but can be leapfrogged by the Czech Republic, Wales, Finland, Turkey and Norway.

For the Czechs to be among the seeded teams in the barrage, they need this to happen:

Beat Estonia by 6 goals
Wales must lose to Belgium
Turkey must not win in Montenegro
Norway must not beat the Netherlands
Finland must not beat France

The last two possibilities are likely to come true, the question is how Belgium will take the match against Wales. The most difficult task seems to be that Montenegro must not lose to Turkey. And of course scoring six goals against Estonia will not be easy, although it was done in the first mutual duel.

If all the results were to come together like this, the Czechs would leapfrog Poland thanks to a better score and would be in the barrier between the seeded teams. At the moment it seems more like a utopia, but hope dies last.

Source: Livesport