Tonight s play-off draw: 22 teams competing for 6 places! There is a big gift package. Italy s qualifying situation is as follows

On November 20, FIFA officially announced that former Italian World Cup champion Marco Materazzi will serve as the guest of the European World Cup preliminaries play-off draw. The other guest is the former Swedish international Dahlin, and the guest of the intercontinental play-off draw is the former French World Cup champion Kalembou. The draw will begin at 20:00 at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich. Tonight’s play-off draw: 22 teams competing for 6 spots! There is a big gift package, and the qualifying situation for Italy is as follows.

All 42 directly qualifying teams for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico have been announced. According to the rules of the European World Cup preliminaries play-offs, the 16 play-off teams will be divided into 4 groups for the semi-finals and finals of the group. The winner will be determined in a single game. The team that wins 2 consecutive games will get a seat in the World Cup. Italy, Denmark, Turkey and Ukraine are in the first round of the play-offs and will face fourth-tier opponents Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia and Northern Ireland in the first round. The first-tier teams will have home field advantage.

Poland, Wales, Czech Republic and Slovakia will also play in the semi-finals at home in the second pot. Their opponents will be in Ireland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo in the third pot. The home team of the European play-off final will be determined by drawing lots. Take Italy as an example. They cannot face the same teams Denmark, Turkey and Ukraine in the play-offs. The other 12 teams are all potential opponents of Italy in the play-offs. Italy needs to win two life-or-death games to advance to the United States, Canada and Mexico. If it loses one game, it will miss the third consecutive World Cup.

The rules of the intercontinental play-offs are that the two highest-ranked teams in the world among the six teams, Iraq (57) and Democratic Congo (60), will directly enter the finals to face the team that wins the semi-finals. The two North American qualifying play-off teams will be drawn and divided into different promotion paths. Jamaica is ranked 68th in the world. Their semi-final opponent will be Bolivia, which is ranked 76th in the world, or New Caledonia, which is ranked 150th. The opponent of Suriname, which is ranked 126th in the world, is the same.

The intercontinental play-offs are also a matter of determination. It is reported that they will be held in Mexico. The Asian powerhouse Iraq is now only one victory away from the World Cup. For the teams in the intercontinental play-offs, they definitely want to meet the New Caledonia team from Oceania. Their strength is indeed limited and it is a big gift package. Because Oceania has 1.5 World Cup quotas, they have the opportunity to play in the play-offs. In the previous Oceania World Cup qualifying final, New Zealand advanced to the World Cup 3-0 New Caledonia. If nothing else goes wrong, after the expansion of the World Cup, New Zealand will be firmly qualified for the World Cup, and Australia may regret joining the AFC.