Road to Qatar 2022 Mapped Out for Europe

Zurich, December 08 (QNA) - The UEFA preliminary draw for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 took place as a virtual event in Zurich on Monday, plotting the path for all 55 European teams to Qatar 2022, which is held for the first time in the Arab world and the Middle East. The teams of Portugal - Serbia - Ireland - Luxembourg - Azerbaijan were drawn into the first group, while the second group included the teams of Spain - Sweden - Greece - Georgia - Kosovo, and the third group included Italy - Switzerland - Northern Ireland - Bulgaria - Lithuania. The fourth group included the teams of France - Ukraine - Finland - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Kazakhstan, and the fifth group included Belgium - Wales - Czech - Belarus - Estonia. The teams of Denmark - Austria - Scotland - Israel - the Faroe Islands - Moldova came in the sixth group. The seventh group included the Netherlands - Turkey - Norway - Montenegro - Latvia - Gibraltar, while the eighth group included Croatia - Slovakia - Russia - Slovenia - Cyprus - Malta. The teams of England - Poland - Hungary - Albania - Andorra - San Marino were drawn into the ninth group. The tenth and final group included Germany - Romania - Iceland - North Macedonia - Armenia - Liechtenstein. The 55 teams were divided into six different levels based on their position in the FIFA world rankings last November. All teams within a group will play each other twice in a home-and-away format between March 2020 and November 2021. The ten group winners will qualify directly for Qatar 2022, with the ten runners-up advancing to the play-offs. Besides the ten runners-up from the group stage, the play-offs will also include the two best group winners from the UEFA Nations League 2020/21 overall ranking that did not qualify directly for Qatar 2022 and did not enter the play-offs as runners-up. The 12 teams will be split into three play-off paths, which will feature single-leg knockout matches in March 2022 to determine the last three European representatives in Qatar. (QNA)