Italy Plays for Their World Cup Spot in an Epic Clash
The Italian national team will face a crucial challenge in March, hosting a World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland. If they advance, they will be forced to play away from home to secure their participation in the tournament, after two consecutive absences.
The draw for the qualifiers, held on Thursday, determined that the winner of the match between Italy, four-time world champion, and Northern Ireland, which will be played on March 26, will face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina five days later. The prize at stake is a place in the first World Cup with 48 teams, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Italy has not participated in a World Cup since 2014 and was relegated to the playoffs after finishing second in a qualifying group led by Norway this month.Italia fue relegada a las eliminatorias al quedar en segundo lugar en un grupo de clasificación liderado por Noruega. (Foto de DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP vía Getty Images)
Other European Qualifiers
In other European play-off ties, Ukraine will host Sweden, and the winner will play at home against Poland or Albania.
Kosovo’s path to its first World Cup as Europe’s newest football nation is against Slovakia, followed by a home match against Turkey or Romania.
The prize for Ireland for their notable consecutive victories over Portugal and Hungary in the last week is a play-off semi-final in the Czech Republic, with the winner receiving Denmark or North Macedonia.
Intercontinental Playoffs
FIFA also conducted the draw for the intercontinental playoffs of six nations, which do not involve Europe.
Iraq, who were seeded in the draw, will have to beat Bolivia or Suriname in a single-match qualifier next March to qualify.
Congo was seeded in the other group of intercontinental qualifiers and will play against the winner of a single-match semifinal between New Caledonia and Jamaica.
The six intercontinental play-off matches will be played in Mexico from March 23 to 31 in stadiums in Guadalajara and Monterrey, which will each host four World Cup matches next June.
A total of six teams will advance from the two sets of qualifiers in March to complete the first 48-nation lineup.
The other 42 teams were confirmed this week when the qualifying groups and knockout matches were completed on four continents.
The World Cup draw is on December 5th at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. There, the six unconfirmed qualifying teams will be drawn as placeholders and should come out of the group of lower-ranked teams in the seeding draw.
A penalty scored by Iraq in the 17th minute of stoppage time against the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday sent coach Graham Arnold’s team to the global qualifiers. Iraq’s 2-1 victory in Basra sealed a 3-2 win in the two-legged Asian qualifier.
Iraq’s only participation in the World Cup was in 1986, and Arnold led his nation, Australia, in the 2022 tournament in Qatar, reaching the round of 16.
New Caledonia is the lowest-ranked team in the qualifiers, in 149th place out of the 211 FIFA member countries.
New Caledonia effectively advanced to the qualifiers by defeating Tahiti 3-0 in March, before losing the Oceania qualifying final against New Zealand. Coach Johann Sidaner’s team has only played one match since then, beating Gibraltar in a friendly last month.
