The final rounds of Europe’s World Cup 2022 qualifying group games delivered some amazing drama. The two most recent European champions in Italy and Portugal both threw away advantageous positions and are now stuck in play-off purgatory, with their World Cup 2022 hopes very much on the line.
Meanwhile, the other most recent European champion, Spain, got out of their sticky situation thanks in large part to their excellent coach, Luis Enrique.
SBOTOP shares three of its biggest takeaways from those countries’ matches, while also looking ahead to what’s next for Italy and Portugal in the play-offs.
Italy struggling to rediscover Mancini magic
It has been a rough last few months for Italy. After the high of winning Euro 2020 in the summer, the Azzurri have ended the year on a sour note.
Not only did their record 37-match unbeaten run finally come to an end in the UEFA Nations League Finals, but they also failed to automatically qualify for the World Cup after four draws in their last five World Cup 2022 results. That puts them in peril of failing to qualify in back-to-back World Cup finals for the first time in history.
Some will point to this slump as merely regression to the mean. There was always going to be some sort of comedown after their remarkable unbeaten run, which, while impressive, did not truly reflect their quality as a team.
Italy manager Roberto Mancini has undoubtedly done a great job with the national team, but the last few games have also shown the limitations of his squad. The absence of a world-class striker was a major concern heading into the Euros, and while they succeeded despite that, their weakness up front is finally starting to catch up to them.
Mancini has earned the benefit of the doubt that he can find a way to fix Italy’s issues heading into the play-offs. But if the Azzurri fail to rediscover the Mancini magic and miss another World Cup, it will certainly be a hard pill to swallow for the European champions.
Portugal like doing things the hard way
Similar to Italy, Portugal also failed to seal the deal and book their ticket to Qatar after drawing with the Republic of Ireland and losing to Serbia at home in the final group game.
However, this is much more expected from the Portuguese, who always seem to do things the hard way in terms of qualifying for major tournaments despite their world-class squad, led by all-time great Cristiano Ronaldo.
This will be the third time in four World Cups that Portugal need a play-off to qualify. They’ve also been perennial runners-up in their Euro qualifying groups and needed to win a play-off in 2012, so this play-off drama is all par for the course.
As he’s shown this season with Manchester United, Ronaldo has a flair for the dramatics and will pull out all the stops to get his country to Qatar, especially since this could very well be the last World Cup of his glittering career.
Luis Enrique’s La Roja again show their resiliency
While Italy and Portugal both squandered their opportunities to win their respective groups, Spain successfully won theirs. La Roja overcame their deficit to Sweden over two games, which culminated in a clutch win over the Swedes on home soil thanks to Alvaro Morata’s late winner.
Luis Enrique and his Spain side deserve tremendous credit for getting the job done despite the obstacles thrown at them. They were missing so many key attacking players – Pedri, Ferran Torres, Mikel Oyarzabal, Gerard Moreno, Ansu Fati – for those last two qualifiers, but just like at the Euros, when they made it to the semi-finals and outplayed Italy, Luis Enrique still found a way to make it work.
Despite a Spain squad that is nowhere near the quality of their Golden Age in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the brilliance of Luis Enrique still has them competing with the top sides in Europe. And as long as he is at the helm, no one should discount La Roja’s World Cup 2022 odds to win it all.
What’s next?
The UEFA World Cup 2022 play-off field is set. Portugal and Italy join Scotland, Russia, Sweden, and Wales as the six seeded teams. They will then face the six unseeded teams, who are Turkey, Poland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
The format of the play-off will have three four-team brackets, with all games one-legged affairs. The winners of the two semi-finals will face off in the final for a place in Qatar.
That means that if Portugal and Italy are drawn in the same bracket, they could square off in the final and one European champion is guaranteed to miss out of the World Cup entirely.
The play-off draw to determine the matchups and the paths will be held on Nov. 26. The semi-finals will be played on March 24, while the finals will be on March 29, 2022.
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