2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round
The UEFA second round was contested by the best eight runners-up from the nine first round groups from the
The draw for the ties was held in
Qualified teams
The eight best runners-up from the UEFA first round qualified for the play-offs; at the time of the draw, with two groups having one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in each First Round group were discarded in this ranking even after the admission of Gibraltar and Kosovo, and with all groups now containing six teams.[2] As a result, eight matches played by each team counted for the purposes of ranking the runners-up.
Ranking of the runner-up teams
The eight best runners-up were determined by the following parameters, in this order:[3]
- Highest number of points
- Goal difference
- Highest number of goals scored
- Fair play points
- Drawing of lots
Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | B | Switzerland | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 6 | +12 | 21 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
2 | G | Italy | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 8 | +4 | 17 | |
3 | E | Denmark | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 14 | |
4 | I | Croatia | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 14 | |
5 | A | Sweden | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 9 | +9 | 13 | |
6 | C | Northern Ireland | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 13 | |
7 | H | Greece | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 13 | |
8 | D | Republic of Ireland | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 13 | |
9 | F | Slovakia | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 6 | +5 | 12 |
Seeding and draw
The second round draw took place on 17 October 2017 at 14:00
The draw was conducted by Mexican TV presenter Vanessa Huppenkothen with the assistance of former Spain international Fernando Hierro.[5]
Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
---|---|
Switzerland (11) |
Northern Ireland (23) |
Matches
The first legs were played on 9–11 November, and the second legs were played on 12–14 November 2017.[6]
Team 1 | Agg.
|
Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
---|---|---|---|---|
Switzerland | 1–0 | Northern Ireland | 1–0 | 0–0 |
Croatia | 4–1 | Greece | 4–1 | 0–0 |
Denmark | 5–1 | Republic of Ireland | 0–0 | 5–1 |
Sweden | 1–0 | Italy | 1–0 | 0–0 |
Northern Ireland | 0–1 | Switzerland |
---|---|---|
Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA) |
|
Switzerland won 1–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Croatia | 4–1 | Greece |
---|---|---|
|
Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA) |
|
Croatia won 4–1 on aggregate and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Republic of Ireland | 1–5 | Denmark |
---|---|---|
|
Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA) |
|
Denmark won 5–1 on aggregate and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Sweden | 1–0 | Italy |
---|---|---|
|
Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA) |
Sweden won 1–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Goalscorers
There were 13 goals scored in 8 matches, for an average of 1.62 goals per match.
3 goals
1 goal
- Nikola Kalinić
- Andrej Kramarić
- Luka Modrić
- Ivan Perišić
- Nicklas Bendtner
- Andreas Christensen
- Sokratis Papastathopoulos
- Shane Duffy
- Jakob Johansson
- Ricardo Rodríguez
Discipline
A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[7]
- Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences)
- Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions were carried forward to the play-offs, but not the finals or any other future international matches)
The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:
Player | Team | Offence(s) | Suspended for match(es) |
---|---|---|---|
David Meyler | Republic of Ireland | vs Wales (24 March 2017) vs Wales (9 October 2017) |
vs Denmark (11 November 2017) |
Mikael Lustig | Sweden | vs Netherlands (6 September 2016) vs Netherlands (9 October 2017) |
vs Italy (10 November 2017) |
Corry Evans | Northern Ireland | vs Azerbaijan (11 November 2016) vs Switzerland (9 November 2017) |
vs Switzerland (12 November 2017) |
Marco Verratti | Italy | vs Spain (2 September 2017) vs Sweden (10 November 2017) |
vs Sweden (13 November 2017) |
References
- ^ a b c "FIFA World Cup European play-off draw to take place on 17 October". FIFA.com. 6 September 2017. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017.
- ^ "Focus switches to World Cup qualifying". UEFA.com. 22 August 2016.
- ^ a b "As it stands: ranking of second-placed teams". UEFA.com. 3 October 2017.
- ^ "Competition format - FIFA World Cup - News - UEFA.com". uefa.com. UEFA. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- ^ "Huppenkothen and Hierro will present European play-off draw". FIFA.com. 13 October 2017. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
- ^ "European Qualifiers: World Cup play-off draw". UEFA.com. 17 October 2017.
- ^ "Regulations – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2016.
External links
- Official FIFA World Cup website
- Qualifiers – Europe: Round 2, FIFA.com
- FIFA World Cup, UEFA.com