Twenty-four hours after Germany, it’s Denmark’s turn to validate their ticket for the 2022 World Cup. The selection of Kasper Hjulmand and his play as pleasant as it is efficient did the job against Austria ( 0-1) to ensure a sixth participation in a World Cup, the second in a row.
To become the third world nation to qualify, after Germany and Qatar, the Danes had to take the three points against the team led by David Alaba. The resistance was fine but the Austrians cracked after an individual feat from Delaney and a perfect finish from the former Genk player Joakim Maehle.
Denmark can also boast of presenting a record as beautiful as it is incredible in this group F. In eight games, the semi-finalists of the last Euro have scored 27 times and have not conceded a goal! The beautiful Danish story continues …
England stuck
On the other hand, it will be necessary to wait for England. Despite the support of 69,000 Wembley fans, Gareth Southgate’s team managed to respond to the Hungarian penalty but never gain the final advantage (1-1).
In this group I, however, the English leaders keep their fate in their hands, especially as they see Albania and then San Marino arriving on their agenda to complete these qualifiers next month.
Italy and Spain in great danger
The four nations present in the League of Nations Final Four were obviously powerless during this October qualifying window. Belgium now knows that a victory against Estonia on November 13 will be enough to qualify while France retains control over Group D. The Italians and Spaniards are however in a less comfortable situation.
The fault obviously with their respective adversaries. In Group B, the beautiful Swedish team beat Greece (2-0) to now have 15 points, two more than Spain. The first place is therefore likely to be disputed on November 14 during the Spain-Sweden clash which will end this group stage before the play-offs.
As for the Italians, they will absolutely have to overcome Switzerland on November 12. Both nations currently have the same number of points but the Squadra have the goalaverage advantage. Easily victorious in Lithuania (0-4), Switzerland however proved that it had the necessary resources to shake the European champion.
The last two qualifying matches in November will, whatever happens to eight new European countries to stamp their ticket for Qatar. Then will come the play-offs, on March 24 to 29, between the ten runners-up in the group and two other nations from the League of Nations. Of these twelve countries, only three will go to Qatar …
