2018 World Cup winners France, will have to combat the likes of Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina & Kazakhstan, in the recent Qatar 2022 UEFA preliminary draw organised by FIFA during a virtual event in Zurich.
The draw which was held on Monday saw teams allocated to groups in alphabetical order, from Group A to Group J (i.e. the first team drawn was allocated to Group A, the second team to Group B and so forth). When a draw constraint applied, the team drawn was allocated to the first available group in alphabetical order as indicated by the draw constraint programme. Pot 6 only contained five teams, those teams were drawn into the sixth position in groups F to J.
All teams within a group will play each other twice in a home-and-away format between March and November 2021. The ten group winners will qualify directly for Qatar 2022, with the ten runners-up advancing to the play-offs.
Besides the ten runners-up from the group stage, the play-offs will also include the two best group winners from the UEFA Nations League 2020-2021 overall ranking that did not qualify directly for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and did not enter the play-offs as runners-up. The 12 teams will be split into three play-off paths, which will feature single-leg knockout matches in March 2022 to determine the last three European nations to book a place in Qatar.
The full groups are as follows:
Group A
Portugal, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan
Group B
Spain, Sweden, Greece, Georgia, Kosovo
Group C
Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania
Group D
France, Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan
Group E
Belgium, Wales, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia
Group F
Denmark, Austria, Scotland, Israel, Faroe Islands, Moldova
Group G
Netherlands, Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar
Group H
Croatia, Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta
Group I
England, Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra, San Marino
Group J
Germany, Romania, Iceland, North Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein
