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Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Denmark and the Netherlands: Switzerland has to beat one of these ten teams from Pot 1 if it wants to go through the playoffs on the way to the World Cup in Qatar to avoid. The draw begins on Monday at 6pm at FIFA headquarters.
Only the ten winners from the five groups of five and the five groups of six qualify directly. The ten runners-up will play in March 2022 alongside two Nations League teams in the playoffs in three groups of four with semi-finals and finals, the last three places in Europe. Regular grading begins in March of next year and ends in November. The game is played in all four time slots in March, September, October and November.
Hope for luck
Swiss coach Vladimir Petkovic made no wish. «It is not a concert on request. In Pot 1, all teams are strong. But there are also good teams in Pot 3, ”Ticino said in an interview with fifa.com. In fact: there are definitely nasty opponents of the third class of European force. Like Russia, World Cup quarterfinalists, or the Scots or Norway slightly strengthened with the young star Erling Haaland or the participants from MS Finland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Switzerland are ranked in Pot 2 after falling outside of the top 10 European teams in the FIFA rankings this year, when they failed to win seven games on the pitch.
The SFV selection was only established once as the head of the group in the last six qualifying rounds for the World Cup or EM (EM 2020 or 2021). Sometimes he was even in pot 3. However, with one exception (EM 2012), he always qualified for the final because he was often lucky. For example, in 2010 with Greece from Pot 1 and Israel from Pot 2 or 2014 with Norway leading the pack. That’s why Petkovic also said: “Let’s hope for a little luck.”
The six pots
Pot 1: Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands.
Pot 2: SWITZERLAND, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Romanians.
Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece, Finland.
Pot 4: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia, Luxembourg.
Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Andorra.
Pot 6: Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, San Marino.
