On Monday, and suspended Russian teams from international competitions. This means that the match between Russia and Poland in the play-offs for promotion to the World Cup will most likely not take place. Most likely, because the Russians have announced an appeal against this decision. The place of the dispute will most likely be the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
It is not clear yet what awaits if the match with Russia does not actually take place. Although the AP agency informed that the team will automatically advance to the final, waiting for the winner of the Sweden-Czech Republic pair, this variant is unlikely.
Just like the fact that Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic will play a tournament against each other for promotion to the World Cup. The spokesman of the Polish national team, Jakub Kwiatkowski, pointed out that to play such a tournament, three dates for the national team matches would be needed. However, only two are free.
Foreign media suggest that the most likely option is that the Poles in the first play-off will face either Slovakia or Hungary. The first ones took third place in the qualifying group, right behind the Russians’ backs. The Hungarians were the first team not to qualify for the World Cup due to good results in the Nations League.
The team that took fourth place in our qualifying group behind England, Poland and Albania won group 3 in Division B of the Nations League 2020/21. However, the Hungarians did not qualify for the World Cup play-off, because among the teams that did just as well in LN and did not get promoted to the World Cup through qualifying, Austria and the Czech Republic had a better balance.
Slovaks and Hungarians about the chances of a match with Poland
On Tuesday, the Slovaks referred to the potential chance from FIFA. In an official statement issued by the local federation, our southern neighbors not only announced that they would not play with the Russians and Belarusians in the near future, but also commented on rumors about the play-off against Poland.
“We would like to emphasize that Slovakia did not achieve a qualifying result that would entitle it to continue fighting for the promotion to the final tournament. Therefore, we do not want to make any claims for an additional chance. -.
On the one hand, the Slovaks do not think that in the face of Russia’s suspension they should take their place, but on the other hand, they do not rule out that if such a proposal appears, they will accept it. One thing is certain – this topic is much more serious in Slovakia than in Hungary.
There is no play-off in this country at all. The Hungarian football federation, unlike the Slovak federation, did not make a statement, and the coach Marco Rossi and any of the officials did not comment on the matter in any way.
– I saw that the topic of our national team’s game appeared in the foreign media, but in Hungary it does not exist at all. Rossi gave a lengthy interview on Monday but made no comment on the issue. He only talked about friendly matches and new players in the team – says Sport.pl David Kaposi from the Hungarian portal Infostart.hu.
And he adds: – We expect that Slovakia, as a team that finished behind Russia, will jump in its place. Unless FIFA decides that the Poles will play in the final right away.
The Russia – Poland match is scheduled for March 24 in Moscow. If the Poles play against Slovakia or Hungary, it will be an opportunity for us to rematch for the last games. On June 14, Paulo Sousa’s team lost 1: 2 to the Slovaks at Euro 2020. In the qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, we played against Hungary twice: in March last year in Budapest there was a 3-3 draw, in November in Warsaw we lost 1-2.
Source: Sport
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