2022 WC Qatar - European qualifiers

[seso]

Congratulations to Wales; a great match and result!! 35-year-old Wayne Hennessey with a great performance! He has only had a handful of apps with Crystal Palace and Burnley in the last three seasons, but he has been great for the national team (102 apps)! Great job by Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) too!
What a qualification campaign for Wales! Finished second in the group, below Belgium and ahead of the Czech Republic, Estonia and Belarus, and then took care of business against Austria and Ukraine!
Wayne Hennessey and Gareth Bale chase Chris Gunter (Charlton Athletic, unused substitute in yesterday's match) in number of apps! All three of them have the most apps for the Welsh national team ever!

[seso]

It is he first time there will be two UK countries at the World Cup since 1998 if I'm not mistaken.

True! We had England and Scotland in France 98!

[greenbay]

This should all be over now UEFA has 16 places.

They'll find a way to make sure that the Mickey Mouse Cup group winners get world cup spots for 2026.
Simple thing: 10 groups of 5 or 6 in WCQ.
Only winners qualify.
Remaining 6 spots in a playoff between WCQ runners-up and best two MMC group winners.

[Club-Mate]

in worldcup KO matches team A were given 2 home matches and team B two away matches. Is this fair play?

Wales earned the first one by being a top runner up. Then it's just a 50/50 shot.

This should all be over now UEFA has 16 places.

at least the final could have done with 2 matches, no 50/50 speculations. They played so far 11 matches why not find one single matchday more. The system with SF/F should end for future. Wales would not have won 2 away games in a row. Whenever could they do it (except against minnows)? Just the probability would have given them not much more than 15 % to succeed in both matches. Gareth Bale only saved them against Austria and now against Ukraine. But admitted Bale is a real Welsh and I am not sure if all the other players are born in Wales (I could not check this yet and know it only from experience from the good Irish side in the 90's and 2000's) some might only have a granny in England but this is normal there and legal (you do not have to be born in the country for which you participate) as in some other sports as well like Icehockey. If needed they always find a relative in England and herewith a player which can fill an empty place. It looks like it's changing in Ireland. There is no more need to emigrate to England like 30-40 years ago and nowadays they earn more in Ireland, GDP is much more higher in Ireland and still have the choice to work somewhere in EU without restrictions.

[Lorric]

This should all be over now UEFA has 16 places.

They'll find a way to make sure that the Mickey Mouse Cup group winners get world cup spots for 2026.
Simple thing: 10 groups of 5 or 6 in WCQ.
Only winners qualify.
Remaining 6 spots in a playoff between WCQ runners-up and best two MMC group winners.

There's no evidence of that. The Nations League teams were treated as bottom of the pile. They'll likely be automatically unseeded in the draw.

[martinjt]

Wales in the same group as England at the World Cup and playing in match 3. Hopefully both teams will have qualified for the last 16 by then, which will take the heat out of the occasion.

[rpo.castro]

I understand Paulo Sousa's decision.

Me too. His only wins as the coach of Poland were against Albania, Andorra and San Marino. He failed to beat any decent teams. Even Hungary were out of his reach. To be offered a job at a top Brazilian club after such a mediocre record is an undeserved opportunity he could not ignore.

I bring good news to Polish friends: Paulo Sousa has been sacked.
Please send him some postcards from Qatar. You wouldn't be there if he didn't run away.

[Juliusz]

Congratulations Wales!

Now let's see who gets the last two tickets.

And I'm also expecting to see the squad sizes. 23 as usual, expansion to 26 like in Euro 2020, something else?!

IFAB made some decisions today. There is now a possibility for a competition organiser to increase number of bench players available from 12 to 15.

A press conference followed and neither squad of 26 nor bench of 15 was confirmed for the World Cup though.

[Dragonite]

Congratulations Wales!

Now let's see who gets the last two tickets.

And I'm also expecting to see the squad sizes. 23 as usual, expansion to 26 like in Euro 2020, something else?!

IFAB made some decisions today. There is now a possibility for a competition organiser to increase number of bench players available from 12 to 15.

A press conference followed and neither squad of 26 nor bench of 15 was confirmed for the World Cup though.

Thanks. I watched it live and was disappointed that they didn't confirm the squad sizes for the 2022 World Cup yet.

For now I'll just assume that it will remain 23, even though the bench expansion from 12 to 15 hints that there will also be a squad expansion from 23 to (at least) 26.

[seso]

A nice stone carving from 400BC! Check out the detail in the towel!