2018 FIFA World Cup (qualifying tournament, UEFA)

All UEFA members are eligible to participate in the qualifying tournament, with the exception of Russia (the host country of the World Cup). Thus, 54 teams should take part in the tournament:

The format of the qualifying tournament was approved by the UEFA Executive Committee at a meeting on March 22-23, 2015 ^{[1] [2]} . It remains similar to what is traditionally used for the selection of European participants in the world championships, as well as in the selection of teams for the European Championship.

54 teams are divided into 9 groups (9 groups of 6 teams), within which a two-round tournament will be held. Winners of the groups go to the final part of the Championship directly. The top 8 of the teams that took second place in the groups are divided into pairs in which butt matches are played on the principle of “at home and away”. 4 winners also enter the final part of the Championship.

Baskets

During the draw according to a pre-agreed principle, the national teams of Germany, England, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands could not fall into groups H and I, which at the time of the draw consisted of five teams, in order to exercise commercial rights by the respective national football federations ^[3] .

The teams of Gibraltar and Kosovo did not participate in the draw, since at that time they were not members of the FIFA. After gaining membership, the Gibraltar team fell into group H, effectively replacing the Russian team, with which the teams of group H were supposed to hold friendly matches, and the Kosovo team took a vacant place in group I ^{[4] [5]} . Thus, all the qualifying groups began to consist of six teams.

Dates and Schedules

The qualifying tournament began on September 4, 2016 and ended in November 2017 ^[2] .

The match schedule was compiled in accordance with the UEFA Football Week concept, which was first applied during the qualifying tournament for the European Championship 2016 ^[6] :

• Matches take place from Thursday to Tuesday.
• On weekdays, matches begin at 20:45 CET ( UTC + 1 / UTC + 2 ), on weekends - at 18:00 and 20:45. Home matches of the teams of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan are held at 18:00 regardless of the day of the week.
• Matches in each group take place on the same day.
• If two rounds are played during one “football week”, each group plays on Thursday and Sunday, Friday and Monday, or Saturday and Tuesday, respectively.

It was supposed to unofficially attach the Russian national team to the H qualifying group, which consisted of 5 teams, for friendly matches on the same schedule as the team that is free from the official qualifying games for the day ^{[7] [8]} . However, in connection with the adoption of Gibraltar and Kosovo by FIFA, there were 6 teams in groups H and I, as in the other groups.

Spotting Points

According to the FIFA regulation, with the equality of points for two or more teams, the following criteria are successively applied:

• Goal difference
• Goals scored
• The results of face-to-face meetings between the respective teams: points, goal difference, goals scored; if there is equality only between two teams - away balls
• Fair Play Rating
• Lot

  The team secured access to the final tournament of the 2018 World Cup

  The team received the right to participate in butt matches

  The team could not reach the final tournament of the 2018 World Cup

Group A

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group B

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group C

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group D

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group E

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group F

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group G

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group H

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Group I

And - games, B - wins, N - draws, P - losses, Goals - goals scored and goals conceded, ± - goal difference, O - points

Ranking Teams Ranking Second in Groups

Eight of the nine teams that took second places in their groups played butt games for reaching the final of the World Cup. When determining the 8 best of the 9 teams who took second places, matches against the last team in each group were not taken into account.

Final position

According to the results of the group tournament, the team from the number of runners-up in the groups, which showed the worst results, the Slovak team dropped out of the fight. The remaining 8 teams are divided into pairs and play 2 butt matches - one match on the field of each of the rivals (November 9-11 and November 12-14, 2017 ).

Draw

At the draw, teams are divided into two baskets (seeded - not seeded) according to the FIFA rating on October 16, 2017.

According to the results of the draw held on October 17, 2017 in Zurich ^[9] at 14:00 CEST ( UTC + 2 ) ^[10] , the teams were distributed as follows: ^[11]