One of Italy or Portugal will NOT be at the World Cup in Qatar 2022 after they were drawn in the same path during the playoffs.

Both teams failed to finish top of their group following bad results in the final group game, with Portugal being beaten at home by Serbia and Italy being held to a draw with Northern Ireland.

Because of those results both sides were entered into the playoffs, where they were drawn in the same path meaning they could meet in the playoff final for one of the three available places in the tournament.

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The result means only one of the teams can go through and they are likely to meet in the final game, with Portugal getting drawn with home advantage.

Scotland and Wales were also drawn in the same path, meaning Britain won’t have more than two sides representing them alongside England.

Russia and Sweden were the seeded teams to be drawn into Path B, meaning that only one of those will be able to qualify also.

For the biggest teams to meet each other they must first win games against the unseeded teams in a one-legged game too. You can see the full draw below.

Path A

Semi-finals:
Scotland vs Ukraine
Wales vs Austria

Final:
Winner of Wales/Austria vs Winner of Scotland/Ukraine

Path B

Semi-finals:
Russia vs Poland
Sweden vs Czech Republic

Final:
Winner of Russia/Poland vs Winner of Sweden/Czech Republic

Path C

Semi-finals:
Italy vs North Macedonia
Portugal vs Turkey

Final:
Winner of Portugal/Turkey vs Winner of Italy/North Macedonia

All semi-final fixtures will be played on March 24th 2022, before the finals on March 29th 2022.

The Qatar World Cup 2022 qualifying phase is over for European nations, but we still don’t know all the teams that will be playing in the tournament.

After ten games each in their groups, ten teams have been assured qualification to the tournament next winter when the most prestigious tournament in football goes to the Middle East.

Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Croatia, England and Denmark have all confirmed their places, but there are still three more places up for grabs from the continent of Europe.

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But there will be 12 teams competing for those final three spaces, in a mini playoff tournament that will decipher which teams make it. It’s a bit complicated, but here is how it will work.

The 12 teams involved in the playoff tournament are;

• Portugal
• Italy
• Scotland
• Wales
• Russia
• Sweden
• Turkey
• Poland
• North Macedonia
• Austria
• Ukraine
• Czech Republic

Of those sides, the first six named will be seeded which means they will play the fixture at home.

There will be three paths to the World Cup, with four teams separated into each of the three paths. In those paths there will be a one-legged semi-final game and then a one-legged final. The winner of those finals will earn qualification into the World Cup.

The semi-finals and finals of the games will take place between March 24th and March 29th 2022.

The draw for the paths will take place on Friday November 26th in Zurich, with another draw to take place following the semi-finals to determine which team will play the final at home.