Monday, 21 October 2013

World Cup 2014 play-off draw: Portugal face Sweden in battle for Brazil

World Cup 2014 play-offs draw
Iceland, top, will hope to avoid Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo, right, while Sweden and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, bottom left, are unseeded, as are France and Franck Ribéry. Photograph: Getty Images
Portgual will face Sweden in arguably the pick of the European World Cup play-offs, the draw for which took place at Fifa's headquarters in Zurich on Monday afternoon.
The first legs will take place on 15 November, when Sweden will travel to Portugal, France will be in Ukraine, Greece will host Romania and Iceland will entertain Croatia. The second-legs will be played on 19 November.
The four eventual winners will qualify for next summer's finals in Brazil, joining the nine nations that have already progressed as European qualifying-group winners: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, England and the 2010 World Cup winners, Spain.
Portgual finished second to Russia in Group F while Sweden were runners-up to Germany in Group C. The last time the sides met in qualifiers both games finished goalless, yet with Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic likely to feature for the respective sides, there should be plenty of attacking play on show.
Portugal, Ukraine, Greece and Croatia were the seeded nations in the draw. France, who were surpisingly unseeded, face the team who finished runners-up to England in Group H. Iceland, meanwhile, would qualify for their first ever World Cup were they to overcome Croatia.

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