After losing its direct ticket to the World Cup in the hands of Croatia on the last Matchday, Russia was forced to play the playoffs to win one of the three places that remain to be defined in UEFA (there are 13 European teams that will go, 10 of which are already classified). For that reason, they had to play Poland in these semi-finals.

The Poles, for their part, reached the playoffs with great difficulty despite the fact that they had an easy group, in which only England was a strong team. The overrated Polish team won, with the elimination of Russia, their ticket to the finals of Path B. In the final, the Poles, who have not had a competitive team since 1974, will face the winner of Sweden vs Czech Republic.

Why was the World Cup Qualifying game cancelled?

Russia, who had earned their right to play this tie legitimately, was removed by FIFA from the qualifiers due to the conflict with Ukraine; in an unprecedented decision of the highest soccer regulatory body, since it is not the first time that one of the participants in the qualifying rounds or even in the World Cup itself was in a military conflict, and yet it is the first time that this decision has been made.