Football World Cup Qatar 2022: Syria can spring a surprise
So far, only two qualifying rounds have been played in the European Zone. It will be March next year before the thirteen teams that will go to the World Cup will be decided. There have been no surprises, with Serbia and Portugal leading Group A, Italy and Switzerland in Group B, France in Group D, Czech Republic and Belgium in Group E, Denmark in Group F, Turkey in Group G, Russia in Group H, England in Group I and Germany in Group J.
The only notable features are the Netherlands' third place in Group G and Spain's second place behind Sweden in Group B. In the last minute Spain scored against Georgia to win the match and did not show the superiority they were supposed to show at all. They will have to improve a lot in November against Sweden if they are not to struggle.
The European Championship is close and Spain's feelings are not those of other qualifying phases.
Four matches have been played in the South American Football Confederation and the favourites are leading the way.
Ten teams are taking part, four of which will qualify immediately. The fifth-placed team will play a play-off against a team from another confederation.
As expected, Brazil leads the ranking, ahead of Argentina. Both teams have the best record historically. They are followed by Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. So far, these are the qualified teams, but there is still a long way to go. Four of the 18 matches have already been played. The qualifying phase will be extended until March 2022.
Bolivia and Peru are the last teams to qualify. Venezuela ranks eighth and it is striking that both Colombia and Chile have only won one match.
Five African teams out of 54 members will represent CAF at the World Cup in Qatar.
Games will be played from May 31 to November 16.
The qualification phase is a marathon. It consists of three rounds. The first round will involve the 28 lowest-ranked teams in the FIFA ranking in July 2019. After a draw, these 28 teams face each other in 14 round-robin play-offs. From here, 14 countries will advance to the next round with the remaining 26 teams.
In the second round, the remaining 26 teams will enter the competition, which, together with the 14 winners from the previous round, will make a total of 40 teams participating in this round. There will be ten groups of four teams, with each team playing their three group opponents in round-robin home-and-away matches. Group winners will advance to the third round.
In the third round, the 10 qualified teams from the second round will be paired in five round-robin play-offs. The winners will qualify for the 2022 World Cup. In November 2021 the five qualifiers will be known.
Unless there are any surprises, the qualifiers for the third round will be Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo; then we have two groups with two favourites: group G with Ghana and South Africa and group D with Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Just one per group will go through.
The three qualifying teams for the CONCACAF World Cup in Qatar will be drawn from an eight-team tournament. Five of them will be Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras, qualified by FIFA ranking. The remaining three will be drawn from a qualifying round currently underway, with Canada, El Salvador, Panama and Guatemala as favourites.
Four teams qualify and a fifth plays a play-off. As in Africa, qualification is a marathon. Based on the FIFA ranking, 40 teams are divided into eight groups of five teams.
The group winners and the four best runners-up advance to the next round. These twelve are divided into two groups of six. The top two in each group go to the World Cup and the third place teams play for the intercontinental play-off.
In order to qualify among these twelve teams, Syria is surprisingly well placed to qualify. Australia, China and Saudi Arabia also have it easy.
One team from this federation will play in an intercontinental play-off. Probably New Zealand.