Nightmare 8 years ago! According to the current ranking of Italy, Italy is in the first pot of the play-offs, and Sweden may be drawn in the fourth pot in the semi-finals.

October 15th: The European preliminaries for the October World Cup have ended. Currently, only England has secured qualification in advance. Italy ranks second in the group, 3 points behind Norway and 16 goal difference away, and has a high probability of entering the play-offs.

Since Sweden is at the bottom of the group stage and cannot advance through the World Cup preliminaries according to its current ranking, it will advance as the four highest-ranked teams in the UEFA Nations League. At that time, these teams that have advanced through the UEFA Nations League will be divided into four tiers.

European play-off bracket predictions (based on current rankings)

First pot: Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland

Second pot: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Scotland

Third pot: North Korea Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo

Fourth pot: Wales, Romania, Sweden and Northern Ireland (UEFA Nations League promotion teams)

According to the draw rules, the 16 teams will be divided into four groups, with four teams in each group. The first-tier teams in each group play against the fourth-tier teams, and the second-tier teams play against the third-tier teams. The winners of the two semi-finals advance to the finals of each group to compete for the champions of the last four groups and advance to the United States, Canada and Mexico World Cup.

In the European play-offs of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Italy lost to Sweden with a total score of 0-1 in two rounds.

In the European play-offs of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the Italian team was defeated in the 92nd minute, 0-1 North Macedonia, and failed in the European play-offs for two consecutive years.