Portgual will face Sweden in arguably the pick of the European World Cup play-offs, the draw for which took place at Fifa's headquarters in Zurich on Monday afternoon.
The first legs will take place on November 15th, when Sweden will travel to Portugal, France will be in Ukraine, Greece will host Romania and Iceland will entertain Croatia. The second-legs will be played on November 19th.
The four eventual winners will qualify for next summer’s finals in Brazil, joining the nine nations that have already progressed as European qualifying-group winners: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, England and the 2010 World Cup winners, Spain.
Portgual finished second to Russia in Group F while Sweden were runners-up to Germany in Group C, having beaten off competition from Austria and the Republic of Ireland. The last time the sides met in qualifiers both games finished goalless, yet with Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic likely to feature for the respective sides, there should be plenty of attacking play on show.
“Portugal, when they are at their highest level, are a world-class team, you saw that in Euro 2012,” said Erik Hamren, the Sweden manager. “Zaltan (Ibrahimovic)has been really good for us for a long time now, he is the match winner for us, a world-class player, and they have one too. That’s interesting because you can have tactics and scouting but a player like Ronaldo or Ibra can change a game and do something extra.”
Portugal, Ukraine, Greece and Croatia were the seeded nations in the draw. France, who were surpisingly unseeded, face the team who finished runners-up to England in Group H. “Ukraine are a team who do not concede a lot of goals but it’s good we are playing the second-leg at home,” said the France manager, Didier Deschamps, who admitted relief at having avoid Portugal.
Iceland, meanwhile, would qualify for their first ever World Cup were they to overcome Croatia and, with a population of just 328,000 people, would be one of the smallest nations ever to compete at the finals.
“I think Croatia is OK,” said their manager, Lars Lagerback. “The advantage is I know the new coach (Niko Kovac) a little bit and I also had experience against Croatia when I was coaching the Swedish team, so I know what we can expect.
Kovac said: “We are very happy with the draw, especially because we will be at home in the return leg in Zagreb. But it would be audacious to take anything for granted because Iceland are a young and ambitious team whose coach has World Cup experience with Sweden and Nigeria. He once lectured me at a coaching academy; now we will come face to face as rivals.”
Greece, who finished second to Bosnia on goal difference in Group G, will be wary of Romania given they beat them 3-1 the last time they met, in a friendly, in 2011.
“I am not satisfied, I wanted another team,” said the Romania coach, Victor Piturca. “Greece are strong opponents, they’re a well-organised team.”
World Cup play-off draw
Portugal v Sweden
Ukraine v France
Greece v Romania
Iceland v Croatia
* The play-offs will be played on November 15th and 19th, with the first team drawn at home in the first leg. The away goals rule will apply.
Guardian Service
