Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Scotland and Russia have already qualified for the World Cup playoffs by finishing second in their group. The European qualifiers are on the verge of being completed, and the teams that are runners up in their groups will compete in the World Cup playoffs in March.
The playoffs will be held between 24 to 29 March and the draws for the playoffs will be made on 26th November, at the FIFA Headquarters in Zurich.
A total of 55 countries have competed to qualify for the World Cup. They have been divided into groups of 5-6 countries each. The winners from each of these groups have automatically qualified for the World Cup. The 10 runners-up from each group will have to appear in the World Cup playoffs.
They will be joined by the two teams with the best group finishes in the Nations League, who have not qualified for the World Cup yet. In total, we will have twelve teams competing for three spots at the World Cup.
There will be three paths (A,B and C) in the playoffs and will be made up by 6 semifinals. The finals of path A will have the winners of semi-final 1&2, similarly B will have the winners of semi-final 3&4 while C will have 5&6.
The seedings for the 10 runners-up will be determined by the points, goal difference, goals scored and away goals scored come into play. Another draw will be held to decide which teams play at home in the semifinals.
