Ahead of the first kick-off of the biggest sporting tournament FIFA WC in a week’s time, presenting to you the major 8 nations that are missing the world cup in Qatar.
A second-place finish behind Switzerland in the qualifiers took Italy to the playoffs where they failed to score and found themselves missing out on the World Cup for the second consecutive time.
The South American side of Colombia finished sixth in the CONMEBOL qualifiers, a point behind Peru who took the playoff spot after the top four teams earned automatic qualification.
Ranked world no. 20, the Swedish team played Poland in the playoff and the home team took full advantage of the support by winning 2-0 and ending the youthful Swedish side’s dreams of making it to Qatar.
Chile has been present at the World Cup since the first edition in 1930. They hosted the tournament in 1962 and finished third, however, failed this time after winning only one of the four qualification matches.
The only politically forced expulsion from the 2022 World Cup is Russia. FIFA announced the team’s expulsion from all competitions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
Ranked 31 in the world, Nigeria’s dreams of playing in front of a large expat Nigerian population this time around were dashed when they drew both their playoff legs against Ghana.
Algeria ended up on the losing side of the most dramatic finishes of the World Cup qualifiers. Karl Toko Ekambi’s goal second before for Cameroon dashed the Algerian side’s hope for Qatar.
Egypt would have been relishing their chances of qualifying for the 2022 event, had their biggest star, Mohammad Salah scored the penalty alongside the other two against Senegal in the playoffs.