World Cup Russia 2018 is around the corner, and next summer we are going to enjoy a lengthy, top class event, in a beautiful country. The qualifiers are already near their end, with most groups having a noticeable leader, with one or a few teams that'd be fighting for the 2nd spot and a play-off match.
This month we already witnessed a few games, some of which were quite head turning and lead to surprising outcomes. With 2 games remaining in most groups, the teams that will not have a chance are pretty much obvious and we can only focus on those who still have chance.
In Group A, France is a leader with 17 points, but recorded a very surprising draw this round against Luxembourg at home, a goalless 0-0. Meanwhile, Bulgaria surprisingly managed to beat Sweden with 3-2 and did not allow the Scandinavians to snap the top spot after France lost easy points. Now all 4 teams have a chance to qualify, with France sitting on top with 17 points, Sweden being second with 16, Holland with 13 and Bulgaria with 12.
Next set of games will happen in October where Bulgaria and France will most likely be the decider match, as if the Bulgarians win, they'd keep their chances for qualifications, and France will drop a position, or France will secure they top spot or at least top 2 and thus secure their qualifying.
In Group B, nothing unusual is happening there, where Switzerland and Portugal are the dominant teams, Switzerland being first with 24 points, and Portugal being second with 21 points, and the third team is Hungary with 10 points, followed by Faroe Island, Andorra, and Latvia. None of these teams will qualify ahead, so it's up to Switzerland and Portugal, to decide the winner of the group. Both teams will meet on October 10th and that will be the decider game.
In Group C, Germany is dominating with 24 points, a perfect record from the 8 games played. Northern Ireland is second in that group with 19 points and the rest of the teams are eliminated as they cannot get to the desired number of points. Azerbaijan are third with 10 points, Czech Republic 4th with 9pts, Norway 5th with 7pts and San Marino with 0. Next meeting will be between Northern Ireland and Germany, and even a draw guarantees the German to be qualified.
In Group D, Serbia is leading with 18 points, followed by Wales with 14 points and Republic of Ireland with 13 points. Austria is 4th with 9 points, and still has chances but to only make it to the play-offs. Georgia are 5th in the group with 5 points, and managed to get the last 2 points in their last 2 games, recording 1:1 against Austria and Ireland, preventing both teams to move higher on the positions they planned for. With 4 teams still having chances to qualify, the next few games look very interesting with Wales v Ireland being perhaps the most anticipated one.
This concludes part one of the recap from the past week of the World Cup 2018 Qualifiers. Part 2 can be found here.
