How does qualifying for the world cup work

England began their World Cup qualification campaign with a comprehensive home victory against San Marino on March That game marked the start of a three-game cycle in March, which also saw the Three Lions beat Albania away then overcome Poland at Wembley.

Three more qualifiers are were played in September, with both Hungary and Andorra beaten and Poland sealing a late draw on home soil. England played two World Cup qualification matches in October, defeating Andorra again on October 9 in a rout and drawing with Hungary at home on October Of course, England's World Cup qualification campaign was interrupted by Euro , with Southgate's side reaching the final, where they lost on penalties to Italy.

Despite taking the lead through Luke Shaw at Wembley in the final, Italy roared back into the game and equalised through Leonardo Bonucci. Unable to be separated over minutes, the match went to penalties, with the Azzurri triumphing in the shootout. Advance to inter-confederation play-offs. Advance to second round. Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Czech Republic. Faroe Islands. San Marino. North Macedonia. Rank Player Goals 1. Omar Al Somah. Ali Mabkhout. Eldor Shomurodov. Yang Xu. Karim Ansarifard. Takumi Minamino. Jamie Maclaren. Harry Souttar. Sardar Azmoun. Rank Player Goals Mohanad Ali. Baha' Faisal. Yousef Nasser. Safawi Rasid. Shahrel Fikri. Qualifying for the World Cup began on June 6, , when minor nations from the Asian confederation played their first round of matches. Mongolia's Norjmoogiin Tsedenbal scored the very first goal in qualifying in a win over Brunei Darussalam.

World Cup qualifying has been seriously affected by the coronavirus pandemic with many qualifying paths suspended. The information below may change depending on the viability of the qualifying paths and local situations.

There are 55 European nations and qualifying began in March There are 10 groups of 5 or 6 teams, with qualifying treble headers in March and September to make up for the lost World Cup qualifying dates of June when Euro was played.

The final three places with be allocated via playoffs. This will involve the 10 runners-up plus the two best-ranked group winners from the UEFA Nations League who do not finish in the top two in their qualifying group. The order of preference for the two teams to enter the playoffs if required via the Nations League, of teams who are still able to use this route, is: France, Spain, Wales, Austria, Czech Republic. There will be three routes, each with four teams featuring a semifinal and a final for a place at the World Cup.

The playoffs are to be held in March The draw will be seeded based upon qualifying-round points. As in recent qualifying competitions, all 10 nations play each other home and away. The top four nations qualify directly to the finals. The fifth-place team will go into an intercontinental playoff draw to be determined.

The first four rounds of qualifiers in March and September were suspended and it finally began in October However, the two planned rounds of matches in March were postponed due to issues with European players being able to travel to South America amid the pandemic. There will be an additional international break in January , in order to complete qualifying in full in the existing format. A revamped qualification process was confirmed for the edition, which was due to begin in September and run to September However, this was abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Each team played every other team in their group only once, in March and June The six group winners progressed.