2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar - UEFA Qualifiers

[Minecache]

Uruguay lost another match to Bolivia by a score of 3-0. As far as South American football goes, I only know Brazil and Argentina, as well as Columbia and Uruguay. Since 2018, Uruguay have been terrible. Their squad is aging, and their current cycle has ended. This is not a surprise win for Bolivia. Luis Suarez's dreams of competing in the 2022 World Cup seem dim. South America qualifiers are a place where even the best teams are subject to defeat by the worst. In reality, any other qualifier cannot be compared to CONMEBOL.

I don't want to divert the debate from UEFA, but there is only one confederation that is more competitive compared to them and it is CONMEBOL. It is very unfortunate that quality teams like Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela struggle to qualify for the world cup, because there are only limited slots allotted to CONMEBOL. If they were participating from any other confederation, then in all probability most of these teams would qualify easily. For example, Venezuela has never played in a FIFA World Cup to this date.

This is true but also at the same time unfortunate. There are some quality teams and if they have chances to play in the world cup I think they would have done well even against quality opponents. By the way, can anyone tell me about the Netherlands? Like what is their current situation and about their squad.

[Woodie]

Serbia and Switzerland made a big surprise in the world cup groups.  Nobody expected this result from Portugal and Italy.  They will definitely pass in the playoffs.  England and Germany, the favorite teams of the World Cup, finished their groups very easily.

Yep, football can be unpredictable  and disappointing, both former Euro champions now forced to play in the playoff to redeem themselves was certainly unforeseen....otherwise these games will require a whole lot of work to be done as this wont be a walk in the park for any team out there and possible elimination as individual players don't seem to have the fight in them looking at what the club performances are.

Serie A is thinking about a break during the period of the playoff.
Is a good idea but don't think it will possible especially if some teams will still be in eurocups.

A break will just benefit those teams that don't have players taking part in these world cup qualifier games, otherwise this is a welcome move..In the name of fair competition I am hoping other leagues can emulate them to give these guys a break and be pscylogically ready for their home(country) games.

[uneng]

By the way, can anyone tell me about the Netherlands? Like what is their current situation and about their squad.

Their situation is the best as possible at the top 1 of Group G without any menace against their leadership. I must say they were really lucky to join a group without any tier 1 teams to fight against, but at same time it doesn't take out all their merit. Taking their performace during this stage in consideration, Netherlands is going to be one of the favorite teams for the next world cup in Qatar.

[ropyu1978]

By the way, can anyone tell me about the Netherlands? Like what is their current situation and about their squad.

Their situation is the best as possible at the top 1 of Group G without any menace against their leadership. I must say they were really lucky to join a group without any tier 1 teams to fight against, but at same time it doesn't take out all their merit. Taking their performace during this stage in consideration, Netherlands is going to be one of the favorite teams for the next world cup in Qatar.

The Netherlands is a big team that has always been favored to be a candidate in the race for the quadrennial trophy, of course this is also a consideration where they have players ranging from good flashlights to qualified strikers. I am very confident in the ability of Memphis Depay and his friends to went far in the Qatar world cup finals, moreover they had missed the Russian world cup 4 years ago but today they bounced back with the dominance of their young and senior players coupled with such an impressive performance in the world cup qualifying round

[KTChampions]

Well, there is one thing, League football is very much different from international football and we can see that by watching the career of Robert Lewandowski and Luis Suarez. Robert Lewandowski has really great career in League football. He is one of the best goal scorers probably this era has ever seen. But his international career tells us another story as he has very little success in his international career. On the other hand, Luis Suarez has a great international career. I am not saying that Suarez cannot play in club football but what I am saying is Luis Suarez is good at both club football and international football. But in the case of Robert Lewandowski and even Lionel Messi, their international career is not like their club career. So there will always be a gap between club football and international football. So it is hard to judge teams because their players were in form in League football.

A strange statement - Lewandowski plays for the national team super successfully, if you don’t believe it, just check the statistics. He played 128 games and scored 74 goals. This is the 14th figure in the entire history of football. And his average scoring is 0.57 goals per game - higher than Messi's (0.51), who plays for a much stronger team than Lewandowski.

[Stalker22]

Well, there is one thing, League football is very much different from international football and we can see that by watching the career of Robert Lewandowski and Luis Suarez. Robert Lewandowski has really great career in League football. He is one of the best goal scorers probably this era has ever seen. But his international career tells us another story as he has very little success in his international career. On the other hand, Luis Suarez has a great international career. I am not saying that Suarez cannot play in club football but what I am saying is Luis Suarez is good at both club football and international football. But in the case of Robert Lewandowski and even Lionel Messi, their international career is not like their club career. So there will always be a gap between club football and international football. So it is hard to judge teams because their players were in form in League football.

A strange statement - Lewandowski plays for the national team super successfully, if you don’t believe it, just check the statistics. He played 128 games and scored 74 goals. This is the 14th figure in the entire history of football. And his average scoring is 0.57 goals per game - higher than Messi's (0.51), who plays for a much stronger team than Lewandowski.

Exactly. I have no idea how kro55 came by such an opinion, but it only takes a glance at the statistics to see that Lewandowski has been remarkably successful in international competitions. As you said, he is the all-time top scorer of the national team, netting 74 goals in 128 games.


source: https://www.transfermarkt.com/

[Silberman]

Uruguay lost another match to Bolivia by a score of 3-0. As far as South American football goes, I only know Brazil and Argentina, as well as Columbia and Uruguay. Since 2018, Uruguay have been terrible. Their squad is aging, and their current cycle has ended. This is not a surprise win for Bolivia. Luis Suarez's dreams of competing in the 2022 World Cup seem dim. South America qualifiers are a place where even the best teams are subject to defeat by the worst. In reality, any other qualifier cannot be compared to CONMEBOL.

I don't want to divert the debate from UEFA, but there is only one confederation that is more competitive compared to them and it is CONMEBOL. It is very unfortunate that quality teams like Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela struggle to qualify for the world cup, because there are only limited slots allotted to CONMEBOL. If they were participating from any other confederation, then in all probability most of these teams would qualify easily. For example, Venezuela has never played in a FIFA World Cup to this date.

True, but at the same time if only the strength of the teams mattered then most likely we would end up with a ‘World Cup’ that included only teams from Europe and South America which by definition it will not be a World Cup, so FIFA has to limit the spots those two zones get so the rest of the world can send some teams to represent their confederations and their continent, so unfortunately it is something inevitable that some good teams will be left out of the competition because of this.

[Swordsoffreedom]

I don't want to divert the debate from UEFA, but there is only one confederation that is more competitive compared to them and it is CONMEBOL. It is very unfortunate that quality teams like Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela struggle to qualify for the world cup, because there are only limited slots allotted to CONMEBOL. If they were participating from any other confederation, then in all probability most of these teams would qualify easily. For example, Venezuela has never played in a FIFA World Cup to this date.

True, but at the same time if only the strength of the teams mattered then most likely we would end up with a ‘World Cup’ that included only teams from Europe and South America which by definition it will not be a World Cup, so FIFA has to limit the spots those two zones get so the rest of the world can send some teams to represent their confederations and their continent, so unfortunately it is something inevitable that some good teams will be left out of the competition because of this.

Actually, when I think about this it makes a lot of sense now because while selecting certain teams from a certain region a lot of good teams can be there but the better teams can only qualify for the World Cup. It is sad to see some so good teams with a lot of potential being left out but as you said it is kind of inevitable.

[kro55]

Well, there is one thing, League football is very much different from international football and we can see that by watching the career of Robert Lewandowski and Luis Suarez. Robert Lewandowski has really great career in League football. He is one of the best goal scorers probably this era has ever seen. But his international career tells us another story as he has very little success in his international career. On the other hand, Luis Suarez has a great international career. I am not saying that Suarez cannot play in club football but what I am saying is Luis Suarez is good at both club football and international football. But in the case of Robert Lewandowski and even Lionel Messi, their international career is not like their club career. So there will always be a gap between club football and international football. So it is hard to judge teams because their players were in form in League football.

A strange statement - Lewandowski plays for the national team super successfully, if you don’t believe it, just check the statistics. He played 128 games and scored 74 goals. This is the 14th figure in the entire history of football. And his average scoring is 0.57 goals per game - higher than Messi's (0.51), who plays for a much stronger team than Lewandowski.

I was actually comparing his international plays with Luis Suarez. But when I am comparing his international stats with other players' international stats I can see that Lewandowski has a really good international career. It's just that I felt like other great players had much more impact on their international team than Robert Lewandowski.

[Silberman]

I don't want to divert the debate from UEFA, but there is only one confederation that is more competitive compared to them and it is CONMEBOL. It is very unfortunate that quality teams like Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela struggle to qualify for the world cup, because there are only limited slots allotted to CONMEBOL. If they were participating from any other confederation, then in all probability most of these teams would qualify easily. For example, Venezuela has never played in a FIFA World Cup to this date.

True, but at the same time if only the strength of the teams mattered then most likely we would end up with a ‘World Cup’ that included only teams from Europe and South America which by definition it will not be a World Cup, so FIFA has to limit the spots those two zones get so the rest of the world can send some teams to represent their confederations and their continent, so unfortunately it is something inevitable that some good teams will be left out of the competition because of this.

Actually, when I think about this it makes a lot of sense now because while selecting certain teams from a certain region a lot of good teams can be there but the better teams can only qualify for the World Cup. It is sad to see some so good teams with a lot of potential being left out but as you said it is kind of inevitable.

But at the same time this kind of format brings excitement to the World Cup, after all this means that good teams could not make it to the tournament making every single match matter, and what better example of this than what we are seeing right now on the UEFA Qualifiers in which neither Portugal or Italy have secured their spot and now they are in a situation in which they have no room for error, and a bad game can be more than enough to not qualify to the World Cup.

[cryptofrka]

I was reading a bit regarding the new UEFA Qualifiers format and as far as I can see, there is no extra protection for the seeded teams - only the general rule that they will be placed against the unseeded team in the semifinal.

That basically means that Portugal and Italy can be placed in the same bracket.

Seeded teams are Portugal, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Wales and Scotland, while unseeded are Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria, Czech Republic and Macedonia.

With only 3 teams qualifying - this will be the toughest UEFA qualifiers so far.

[Davidvictorson]

I hope Mali will make the surprise of Africa, against the rest african football . If Burkina Faso didn't be in the same group with Algeria, it would be one more surprise. It is a strong team. Switzerland in Europe, one more surprise. Uruguay  in South America, an outsider surprise for the first time after a lot of World Cups

[KTChampions]

A strange statement - Lewandowski plays for the national team super successfully, if you don’t believe it, just check the statistics. He played 128 games and scored 74 goals. This is the 14th figure in the entire history of football. And his average scoring is 0.57 goals per game - higher than Messi's (0.51), who plays for a much stronger team than Lewandowski.

I was actually comparing his international plays with Luis Suarez. But when I am comparing his international stats with other players' international stats I can see that Lewandowski has a really good international career. It's just that I felt like other great players had much more impact on their international team than Robert Lewandowski.

Suarez, like Lewandowski, played 128 matches for the national team, but scored fewer goals - 65 and his figure is the same as Messi - 0.51 goals per game on average. Lewandowski is better than both of them (although he is in favor of a clearly weaker national team, at least in relation to the Argentina national team), so I still do not understand which point of view you were trying to convey.

[wxa7115]

While it is sad at the end of the day they have no one other than themselves to blame, they only needed two draws during their last two matches to get their ticket to the world cup and they were unable to do this under circumstances that were very favorable to them.

And what should be really disappointing is not only that they failed to qualify directly to the world cup but how this happened, they allowed a goal at the last minutes of the most important game of the qualifiers, which tells me they let their guard down as they felt they were already qualified to the world cup, and we will have to see if Portugal can get their ticket to the world cup, something not easy when there are many good teams which could beat them any given day.

Such things happen, didn’t Italy fail to qualify for the last World Cup and later they became European champions?
Portugal should also have lost in the match against Ireland, so this defeat against Serbia is not too much of a surprise either, the better team deservedly won.
If Portal does not raise the level of their game and aggression, they will not go to the World Cup.
As for Ronaldo, given how he plays at the moment, it is not impossible for him to perform at the next World Cup in 5 years, and I think that is his wish.

They do happen, however I think in the case of Portugal people care a lot more as they know that this is probably the last chance we are going to have to watch Ronaldo at the world cup and if they fail to qualify then that is going to be it and we will never have the opportunity to watch him on the competition again.

So fans all over the world want Portugal to qualify, still if they happen to lose fair and square during this second round of the qualifiers then so be it, we will have to accept the outcome even if we are not satisfied by it.

[CryptoBuds]

A strange statement - Lewandowski plays for the national team super successfully, if you don’t believe it, just check the statistics. He played 128 games and scored 74 goals. This is the 14th figure in the entire history of football. And his average scoring is 0.57 goals per game - higher than Messi's (0.51), who plays for a much stronger team than Lewandowski.

I was actually comparing his international plays with Luis Suarez. But when I am comparing his international stats with other players' international stats I can see that Lewandowski has a really good international career. It's just that I felt like other great players had much more impact on their international team than Robert Lewandowski.

Suarez, like Lewandowski, played 128 matches for the national team, but scored fewer goals - 65 and his figure is the same as Messi - 0.51 goals per game on average. Lewandowski is better than both of them (although he is in favor of a clearly weaker national team, at least in relation to the Argentina national team), so I still do not understand which point of view you were trying to convey.

^ I was trying to point out exactly what you said about the class of exponents that both teams face. Argentina seems to face rather stronger opponents. And when Argentina plays, it doesn't matter who the opponent is, there will always be at least five of six players surrounding Messi when he tries to advance with the ball. And a lot of time Messi has to make the play himself in the forward for Argentina. I am not saying that nothing like that happens ever with Lewandowski but it does seem to me that Lewandowski gets much more better balls and chances than Messi gets.

[LUCKMCFLY]

-snip
there is something that I always ask myself, is the amount of money that influences what those players win, for example the case of CR7 is totally different from theirs, I think that CR7 does not lose level from where it goes playing, whether internationally or in the club that is, CR7 will always give the maximum and is a player who will practically be in the QATAR world, the case of Luis Suarez is endangering his way to the World Cup, because Uruguay has problems for qualifying to QATAR It is getting very complicated, in fact in his last two games against Argentina he lost them. And it would be a shame if Suárez was not seen in the QATAR World Cup.

In Luis Suarez's case, I think that he is a better club player than an international player. And this can happen with a lot of players as they spend more time in the club they play for more than their international team. So it can be hard to cope up with the situation at times but I do want to see Luis Suarez in Qatar world cup too.

It may be that Luis Suarez is out of the World Cup, they have to win to ensure the playoffs, however Peru is giving the fight, in Uruguay Profe Tata Tavarez left after 15 years in the national team leading Uruguay to win many championships, cups Americas and taking him to the World Cups, I don't know what will happen with Suarez, but his going to the World Cup is in serious danger.

On the other hand in Europe they are the same with CR7, Ibrahimovic, you may see the faces in the playoffs, in addition to that the rules of the playoffs changed abruptly, because now it will only be one game and that's it.

[famososMuertos]

I hope Mali will make the surprise of Africa, against the rest african football . If Burkina Faso didn't be in the same group with Algeria, it would be one more surprise. It is a strong team. Switzerland in Europe, one more surprise. Uruguay  in South America, an outsider surprise for the first time after a lot of World Cups

Your post summarizes the rally of comments between users with the different confederations, without a doubt it is difficult not to stray from our respective geographical zones and associate the players who play in Europe with the different regions.

However, each World Cup always gives us certain countries in their first WC, Mali is about to reach it, I always have a pending special bet every World Cup, I bet that an African country it will be world champion before Holland, the clockwork orange is one of my favorite teams always but I have been disappointed so many times , so made this bet.

The Netherlands is already qualified for Qatar 2022, I only wait for the five best in Africa.

[Silberman]

I was reading a bit regarding the new UEFA Qualifiers format and as far as I can see, there is no extra protection for the seeded teams - only the general rule that they will be placed against the unseeded team in the semifinal.

That basically means that Portugal and Italy can be placed in the same bracket.

Seeded teams are Portugal, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Wales and Scotland, while unseeded are Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria, Czech Republic and Macedonia.

With only 3 teams qualifying - this will be the toughest UEFA qualifiers so far.

Well it is either sink or swim for those teams, they had a lot of chances to advance directly to the World Cup and they failed to do it so it makes sense there are no more safety nets, if they want to get to the World Cup they will have to win the rest of their matches, the draw is tomorrow so we will know the matches ahead of us, the semifinals will take place on March 24th while the finals of the three paths will take place on March 29th, so the teams are going to have a lot of time to prepare and be on their best possible shape to try to win those games.

[alegotardo]

Your post summarizes the rally of comments between users with the different confederations, without a doubt it is difficult not to stray from our respective geographical zones and associate the players who play in Europe with the different regions.

However, each World Cup always gives us certain countries in their first WC, Mali is about to reach it, I always have a pending special bet every World Cup, I bet that an African country it will be world champion before Holland, the clockwork orange is one of my favorite teams always but I have been disappointed so many times , so made this bet.

The Netherlands is already qualified for Qatar 2022, I only wait for the five best in Africa.

In fact, the African continent has good teams for this next cup, at first I doubted it but I have seen that the potential for an African team to stand out is great.

Morocco is one of my favorite African teams.
In Europe, I'm still with Germany, which despite having done poorly in the last World Cup and Euro, has managed to stand out so far in the qualifiers for Qatar. And I also have no remorse for their having humiliated Brazil 7x1 in the 2014 World Cup.

[Juggy777]

I was reading a bit regarding the new UEFA Qualifiers format and as far as I can see, there is no extra protection for the seeded teams - only the general rule that they will be placed against the unseeded team in the semifinal.

That basically means that Portugal and Italy can be placed in the same bracket.

Seeded teams are Portugal, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Wales and Scotland, while unseeded are Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria, Czech Republic and Macedonia.

With only 3 teams qualifying - this will be the toughest UEFA qualifiers so far.

Well it is either sink or swim for those teams, they had a lot of chances to advance directly to the World Cup and they failed to do it so it makes sense there are no more safety nets, if they want to get to the World Cup they will have to win the rest of their matches, the draw is tomorrow so we will know the matches ahead of us, the semifinals will take place on March 24th while the finals of the three paths will take place on March 29th, so the teams are going to have a lot of time to prepare and be on their best possible shape to try to win those games.

@Silberman honestly Italy and Portugal should have qualified easily, but they made a mess of their respective campaigns and it’ll hurt if one of them don’t qualify for World Cup. Furthermore it’s Ronaldo’s last World Cup, hence I’m sincerely hoping that Portugal get a easy pick and in the end qualify for the World Cup.