💥 FIFA to change World Cup draw? 🇮🇹 Italy hopeful, here’s why 👀 | OneFootball

An important international break, but one that might not change much. Gattuso’s Italy will fly to Moldova before hosting Haaland’s Norway. If everything goes as expected, the Azzurri will finish in second place, which means playoffs.

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Of course, there’s always hope that Norway won’t win against Estonia, postponing everything to the direct clash in the last match, but looking at the Scandinavians’ journey, it seems at least difficult to imagine a misstep: so far, Norway has been going full speed, with 6 wins out of 6, 29 goals scored (Italy has 11 fewer) and only 3 conceded. 

This is why, in short, at Coverciano they’ve already started thinking about the playoffs. A third consecutive World Cup watched from the couch is not an option being considered, which is why there’s (cautious) optimism when looking towards the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

🥇 Italy a seeded team?

Also because, in case of qualification, the path to the World Cup could be easier, at least on paper. According to Football Meets Data, FIFA is actually considering changing the way the groups are decided. How? By giving priority to the ranking.

📸 STEFANO RELLANDINI - AFP or licensors

As things currently stand, Italy (who would qualify through the playoffs) would be placed in pot four, the last one, and would therefore have a high chance of ending up in a group of death. However, if the change goes through, the ranking would be rewarded, allowing the Azzurri to be drawn from pot one, the seeded teams, with Germany moving to the second tier, Austria to the third, and so on. 

For now, all this is just a rumor, nothing official, but it would certainly be great news for Gattuso. FIFA is considering it, but will have less than a month to make a decision. The draw, in fact, will take place on December 5th in Washington. Fourteen days earlier, however, Italy will find out the name of their opponent in the playoff semifinal in the draw on November 21st. Of course, that’s if Norway beats Estonia. Otherwise, first place will be up for grabs at San Siro.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

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