Halfway through the European World Cup qualifying schedule, there is only one group out of 12 groups, and it is currently unclear who can advance directly.

Due to the expansion of the World Cup and the intrusion of the UEFA Nations League, the European World Cup preliminaries schedule was suddenly compressed. Especially those groups with only 4 teams, all games need to be completed within three months. It’s hard to imagine that this is the World Cup preliminaries held every four years.

The shortened schedule means more variables and less room for error. However, judging from the current situation, the so-called dilemma of the strong team is just a false alarm. For example, Germany unexpectedly lost to Slovakia in the first round, but Slovakia also failed to live up to expectations and lost to Northern Ireland, so Germany is still ranked first. There are still three rounds left in the game. Although Germany, Slovakia and Northern Ireland both have 6 points, Germany's strength advantage makes them clearly occupy the most advantageous position.

Portugal, England, France, Netherlands, Spain and other teams have obvious strength advantages in the group. They have basically no problem qualifying for the World Cup. Although Belgium is temporarily behind North Macedonia, they have one game less after all, so overtaking is not a big problem. Then there is Croatia, which previously had the same points as the Czech Republic and also had one game less. However, as the Czech Republic lost to the Faroe Islands and Croatia defeated Gibraltar, the latter's advantage was established again. The only strong team that is somewhat embarrassed is Italy. In fact, to say that they are a strong team is just to take care of their background. In fact, Italy is no longer in the top ranks. For Italian fans who are accustomed to the dilemma of missing two consecutive World Cups, it is not that difficult to accept that they are lagging behind Norway and have a high probability of playing in the play-offs. There is currently only one group out of the 12 groups in the European World Cup preliminaries. At first glance, it is really hard to tell who can advance directly. Let's look at the situation in Group C.

Belarus is a weakling. It is a child who gives away points and has long been out of contention for promotion seats. Greece has a mythical history of winning the European Cup, but now they have long passed their peak and have no real competitiveness. But Denmark and Scotland, can you confidently bet on either team? Both teams have 10 points with 3 wins and 1 draw. Of course, Denmark has a higher goal difference, 11. Scotland only has 5. However, Denmark and Scotland played 0:0 at home, and it was difficult to tell the difference between the two sides. Moreover, Scotland scored 1 point in the away game, which objectively still took the initiative. Therefore, under hedging, it is more difficult for the two teams to see who has the advantage. In the past few years, Denmark has declined slightly compared to reaching the semi-finals of the 2021 European Cup. Especially in the 2022 World Cup, they were eliminated by Australia. In the 2024 European Cup, they were eliminated by Germany just after entering the knockout round, which was slightly mediocre. Scotland, on the other hand, has made a comeback in recent years. Since participating in the World Cup in 1998, they have rarely had the opportunity to appear in major competitions. However, they participated in the 2021 European Cup and the 2024 European Cup continuously, and also reached the play-offs in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Therefore, the past few years can be regarded as a period of relatively good trends in Scotland. Both teams have stars, but they are far from top-tier. Denmark has Hoylen and Eriksen, and Scotland has McTominay. The two teams are close in strength and have similar playing styles. If we make an analogy, they may be equivalent to Sweden and Switzerland a few years ago. Of course, Sweden today has been left behind by Switzerland. The rest of the game for both sides has its own advantages and pitfalls. The opponent Belarus is a point-scoring question, and the goal difference is the more critical goal. As for other matchups, Denmark's advantage is that their match with Greece has ended with a good result. Scotland's game against Greece is an away game, so the variables are even greater. Denmark's disadvantage is that they play Scotland away in the last round. This may be the "final" of this group. There is a high probability that whoever wins will advance directly.