The grand draw of the Qatar 2022 World Cup is one week away, but the Argentine team can already glimpse what their path could be at the end of the year and also look at the possible rivals that will fall into their group. As a first step, and beyond the fact that this will only be confirmed next Thursday, March 31 with the update of the FIFA Ranking, Albiceleste will be the group leader in the draw.
What does it mean that Argentina is at the top of an area? As the main step, he will not face host Qatar or the other top seeds that will be defined by the FIFA ranking: Belgium, Brazil, France, England, Spain and Portugal or Denmark (the Danes will depend on the result of the Portuguese against Macedonia next Tuesday).
At the same time, among the certainties with which the albiceleste delegation will land at the Doha Convention and Exhibition Center (DECC) next Friday is that it will not be part of Group A, because it is designated the organizing country: the draw will place it between B and H. The debut match will be between Monday 21 and Thursday 24 of November.
In total, those led by Lionel Scaloni must rule out 10 of the 31 World Cup qualifiers beforehand: the remaining seven seeded (including Brazil) will have to be added by the other three who took the ticket from Conmebol either directly and to the ball that will represent the playoff of these latitudes. That is, Ecuador, Uruguay and the one who will go to the ante repechage (it will be defined between Peru, Colombia and Chile).
Although the international repechage between the representatives of Conmebol and Asia will only take place in June, the ball that will represent that qualifier will go to Pot 4 and avoid crosses with teams from those same federations.
The draw will divide the 32 teams into four pots of eight members each. The three rivals of the National Team will come out of Pot 2, Pot 3 and Pot 4, respectively. With 19 teams already qualified, it remains to be seen how the 13 tickets left free for the World Cup will be closed: 3 direct from Concacaf, 3 from Europe, 5 from Africa, in addition to the 2 international repechages (Conmebol vs. Asia and Concacaf vs. Oceania).
With 19 countries with their ticket in hand, so far Argentina could face 10 of them: Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Denmark (if not seeded). It should be noted that two European representatives could fall into their group, the only continent that can have more than one representative per zone as a result of the fact that it has 13 places available for the World Cup.
Although the Pots may be expected, we will have to wait until the previous day because on Thursday, March 31, FIFA will make the last update of the Ranking that will allow all the qualifiers to be officially placed in their respective platoons. Beyond that, there are some certainties with the current ranking that will clearly cause concern: Germany, the Netherlands and Croatia will surely be in Pot 2.
This Friday, in addition to the National Team's match against Venezuela for South American Qualifiers, a key first step will be taken in Africa : the first leg of the five matches that will define the qualifiers for that continent will be played on March 29. Senegal (18th), Morocco (24th), Nigeria (32nd) and Egypt (34th) are the best placed in the FIFA Ranking today and could mainly occupy Pot 3, although Senegal has a chance of even appearing in Pot 2.
THE TENTATIVE LANDSCAPE WITH CLASSIFIEDS
Potential opponents of Pot 2: Germany - Denmark - Netherlands - Switzerland - Croatia
Potential opponents of Pot 3: Iran - Serbia - Japan - South Korea
Potential opponents of Pot 4: Saudi Arabia - European Repechage (Scotland/Ukraine vs. Wales) - Concacaf Repechage vs. Oceania
* The drums could undergo changes in relation to the FIFA ranking that will be updated on December 31
* Another 13 qualifiers are still to be known: 10 will be defined next week and 3 will be defined in the June playoffs
THE RULES OF THE RAFFLE
The 29 qualified teams, the two intercontinental playoffs and the UEFA play-off quota will be divided into four groups of eight teams each, based on the World Ranking published on 31 March 2022, following the end of the international match window in March 2022. According to the standings, the top seven teams, along with the host, Qatar, are assigned to group 1. Selections ranked from 8 to 15 are assigned to group 2. The teams qualified from 16 to 23 are assigned to group 3 and, finally, group 4 includes the teams classified from 24 to 28, in addition to the two places that will be occupied by the winners of the intercontinental qualifiers scheduled for 13 and 14 June 2022 and the place of the winner of the UEFA playoff.
The general principle of FIFA, wherever possible, is to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same qualifying area. This applies to all areas, except Europe, which is represented by 13 teams. Each group must have at least one European team, but no more than two. Thus, five of the eight groups will have two European teams.
The geographical distribution of the winner of the UEFA repechage and the two winners of the intercontinental repechage will also follow the general principle of “separation” of teams from the same qualifying area
The geographical allocation of each intercontinental repechage place shall be based on the pairings of the confederation teams participating in that specific match of the intercontinental repechage
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