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90th minute winner for Serbia in Lisbon.
FT: Portugal 1 - 2 Serbia
Portugal have to go via the play offs
We’re going to draw Portugal, and get revenge for 2016. We’ll have Rambo this time 😉
Let’s be honest, it’s going to be one hell of an ask to qualify for the WC through the play offs. 12 teams and only 3 places. Those teams include Portugal Sweden, Poland , either Italy or Switzerland and Russia . We could get lucky and get 2 games against say North Macedonia Romania, Scotland or Ukraine ( not that any of those would be easy) but more likely is we’ll have at least one away tie against one of the bigger countries - and no doubt FIFA will ensure the draw is all above board and fair and still gives the best chance to Portugal and Italy/ Switzerland to qualify
only 13 teams qualify, it isn't like the Euros where we get 24?
it's always going to be very hard to get there, and even getting to a playoff means there is a lot of work to do.
My mistake. I thought you were questioning why only 13 teams got through and not 24.
Definitely a lot harder to qualify for the WC than Euros.
I’d prefer the best 36 teams in UEFA went into 6 groups of 6 and the top 2 qualify. Either give our 13th spot to a different continent or have the 19 weakest teams (Gibraltar, Malta, Faroes, etc) play their own qualifying system for the final spot.
Similar to how the Nations League allowed a Group D team into the Euros this would give the minnows a chance (albeit small) of reaching a World Cup. In the current format they’re just the whipping boys every qualifying campaign.