March 27 – The race for Europe’s final places at the FIFA World Cup has taken shape after a dramatic round of play-offs on Thursday – and it proved a bruising night for the British home nations.
Both Wales and Northern Ireland saw their campaigns ended exiting before reaching the final hurdle. Near neighbours the Republic of Ireland, like Wales, saw their challenge end in the penalty shoot-out – Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina move on to next week’s finals, keeping their World Cup hopes alive.
Italy, who haven’t qualified for the finals since 2014, did what was required to stay in then. Two second half goals from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean secured the 2-0 win over Northern Ireland, setting up an all-important clash with Bosnia and Herzegovina next week.
Elsewhere, Poland and Sweden booked their places in the next round with wins over Albania and Ukraine respectively. They will now face off for a single World Cup berth in what looks one of the tighter match-ups of the play-offs. Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres netted a hattrick to move past Ukraine and will no doubt be the focus of Polish training sessions over the weekend.
Türkiye edged past Romania 1-0 thanks to a second-half strike from Ferdi Kadıoğlu and will head into their final against Kosovo as favourites. Kosovo, however, arrive with momentum after edging a seven-goal thriller against Slovakia, winning 4-3 in one of the ties of the round.
Denmark produced the standout performance of the night, brushing aside North Macedonia 4-0 to make a statement. They now face Czech Republic.
The final fixtures are set for Tuesday, March 31, with four ties to decide the remaining European representatives:
Czech Republic vs Denmark (19:45 BST)
Sweden vs Poland (19:45 BST)
Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Sweden (19:45 BST)
Kosovo vs Turkiye (19:45 BST)
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [email protected]