On Nov. 19 countless hearts from four European nations will bleed. The date marks the second half of the UEFA World Cup playoffs which will determine which four teams from the eight runners-up of the initial qualifying process are given the biggest boot of their lives. The other four will be 2014 FIFA World Cup inductees.
As it stands, the eight remaining UEFA Playoff teams are, in alphabetical order:
-
Croatia
-
France
-
Greece
-
Iceland
-
Portugal
-
Romania
-
Sweden
-
Ukraine
They are ranked as follows based on their total points, goal difference, and highest number of goals scored as accrued from initial UEFA play and as determined by the order of the three criteria directly above.
Keep in mind that these numbers do not illustrate all matches played as some groupings had more teams than others.
|
TEAM |
GOALS FOR |
GOALS AGAINST |
GOAL DIFFERENCE |
TOTAL POINTS |
|
Greece |
9 |
4 |
+5 |
19 |
|
France |
15 |
6 |
+9 |
17 |
|
Portugal |
15 |
8 |
+7 |
15 |
|
Ukraine |
11 |
4 |
+7 |
15 |
|
Sweden |
15 |
13 |
+2 |
14 |
|
Iceland |
15 |
14 |
+1 |
14 |
|
Romania |
11 |
12 |
-1 |
13 |
|
Croatia |
9 |
8 |
+1 |
11 |
The highest-ranked Greece will face off against Romania on Nov. 15, the first half of the elimination process, and Nov. 19. Each leg of the series is hosted in a respective city of the team’s homeland. For Greece and Romania, Nov. 15 will be played in Athens, Nov. 19 in Bucharest, Romania.
Second-ranked France faces off against the Ukraine on Nov. 15 in Kiev while Nov. 19 will be played in Saint-Denis, France.
Portugal, fronted by boy wonder Cristiano Ronaldo, plays in Lisbon on the 15th against Sweden and then on the 19th in Solna, a municipality in central Sweden.
Finally, Iceland will duke it out with Croatia. First in Reykjavík, Iceland on the 15th and then in Zagreb, Croatia on the 19th.
Judging the teams by their after-group rankings is troublesome as the conditions are the result of playing against very differently matched opponents. Romania, for example, is ranked lower than Iceland after playing a very top-heavy group. Iceland, also, has pulled off some unexpected wins as of late. Sweden is stronger than their rank suggests as they played two matches against Germany in their division which resulted in 3-5 and 4-4 scores. France is underneath Greece but they also had to play twice against Spain.
For more analysis on who makes it past the UEFA Playoffs tune in closer to Nov. 15.
