European Qualifiers: World Cup play-off places confirmed
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Article summary
The nine European groups in FIFA World Cup qualifying came to a conclusion on Tuesday, with only eight of the runners-up advancing to November's play-offs.
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Who has qualified for the play-offs?
Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland.
How the best second-placed teams were ranked
All nine group winners qualified automatically. The eight runners-up with the best records against the sides first, third, fourth and fifth in their groups have gone into the play-offs for UEFA's remaining four berths (the exclusion of results against sixth-placed teams was retained to alleviate any possible imbalance between the qualifying groups caused by the late introductions of Gibraltar and Kosovo).
Final rankings: second-placed teams
| Pos. | Grp | Team | Pld | Pts | GD | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | Switzerland | 8 | 21 | +12 | 18 |
| 2 | G | Italy | 8 | 17 | +4 | 12 |
| 3 | E | Denmark | 8 | 14 | +7 | 13 |
| 4 | I | Croatia | 8 | 14 | +4 | 8 |
| 5 | A | Sweden | 8 | 13 | +9 | 18 |
| 6 | C | Northern Ireland | 8 | 13 | +4 | 10 |
| 7 | H | Greece | 8 | 13 | +4 | 9 |
| 8 | D | Republic of Ireland | 8 | 13 | +2 | 7 |
| 9 | F | Slovakia | 8 | 12 | +5 | 11 |
With matches against the bottom side in the six-team groups discounted, the runners-up are ranked by the following criteria, in this order, as per FIFA competition regulations, article 20 paragraph 6, criteria a), b), c), then h) and i):
1 Highest number of points
2 Best goal difference
3 Highest number of goals scored
4 Fair play points (first yellow card -1pts; second yellow card/indirect red card -3pts; direct red card -4pts; yellow card, plus direct red card -5pts)
5 Drawing of lots
What happens next?
The eight best runners-up enter a draw for the four play-off ties held in Zurich on 17 October, starting at 14:00CET. Teams will be seeded according to the FIFA rankings published the previous day, with the highest-ranked quartet in Pot 1 and the remaining sides in Pot 2.
The teams then play on a home-and-away basis, with the order of the legs decided by the draw. The first meetings take place between 9 and 11 November, with the second legs played over the following three days. The winner of each tie enters the draw for the World Cup on 1 December.
