Italy being out of the FIFA World Cup was a total surprise. However, that’s certainly not the case with plenty of teams that won’t be in Qatar 2022. Granted, Turkey appears as one of those that is not shocking to see them out of the competition given they have only played in two other tournaments in the almost 100 years of history the event has.
Although for some casual soccer fans it could be a bit odd to hear they aren’t participating. That’s not because they have been consistently participating in it. They only took part of Switzerland 1954 and Korea-Japan 2002, so why would someone think they should be in it? Precisely what happened 20 years ago when they became the center of attention for their formidable results in that World Cup.
Surely, they arrived in Asia after a 48-year absence atthis level of tournament. Though what occurred during that month did enter the record books since they returned to Turkey with the third place. Actually, the only team that beat them was a probably top 5 all-time Brazilboth in the group stage and in the semifinals. Looking back to that performance it seems hard to understand how they couldn’t go back. Here you will find out why they didn’t make it Qatar.
Why did Turkey not qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?
Turkey took part of the UEFA qualifiers along with 54 other countries. There were drawn 10 groups, where half of them had five teams in and five others included six participants. For them it was group G, going up against Netherlands, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, and Gibraltar. The leader was set to advance directly to Qatar 2022 and the second place sent that squad to the playoffs.
Although they weren’t able to go all the way. In that first set of games, they did very well, having six wins, three ties and only one loss. Those 21 points put them ahead of everyone but the Dutch, so they had to play in the head-to-head elimination round. That part had a dozen teams divided into three mini draws to determine the three last European representatives in the FIFA World Cup.
But they were too unlucky with the opponents they were grouped in with. It was the section that had title favorites like Portugal and Italy, and the revelation North Macedonia. In the end, they had to face Cristiano Ronaldo on the road and that didn’t end well. It was a close game since the Portuguese only sealed their victory in the aggregate, but that 3-1 defeat eliminated them.
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