Portugal and Sweden will become Russia's rivals in the 2022 World Cup play-offs matches. They will fight for the right to get into the final part of the tournament. About this writes “Gazeta.ru”.
It is reported that in the semifinals of the play-offs, the Russian national team may meet with Scotland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Austria. In the final, the Russians can play against North Macedonia, Poland and Portugal. The rest of the potential rivals of the Russians will be determined after the last matches in this qualifying cycle will be played by members of groups C, D, E, G and I.
Semi-final pairs will be determined by a draw, which will take place on November 26 in Zurich. The World Cup itself will be held from November 21 to December 18, 2022 in five cities of Qatar.
On November 14, the Russian national team lost to the Croatian national team in the match of the final tenth round of the qualifying tournament of the 2022 World Cup. The meeting took place in Split and ended with the score 1: 0 in favor of the hosts. The only goal in the 81st minute was scored by the defender of the Russian national team Fedor Kudryashov.