2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group A explained
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification UEFA Group A was one of the ten UEFA groups in the World Cup qualification tournament to decide which teams would qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals tournament in Qatar.[1] Group A consisted of five teams: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Serbia.[2] The teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.[3]
The group winners, Serbia, qualified directly for the World Cup finals, while the runners-up, Portugal, advanced to the second round (play-offs).
Qatar were partnered with the five-team group that does not contain a UEFA Nations League finalist, Group A, which enabled the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts to play centralized friendlies against these countries on their "spare" match dates. However, these friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings. Also, Qatar played their "home" matches in Europe in order to allow short travel times for their opponents.[4] [5] [6]
Standings
Matches
The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 8 December 2020, the day following the draw.[7] [8] [9] Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
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Discipline
A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[10]
- Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences)
- Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions were carried forward to the play-offs, but not the finals or any other future international matches)
The following suspensions were served during the qualifying matches:
| Team | Player | Offence(s) | Suspended for match(es) |
|---|
| | vs Portugal (7 September 2021)
vs Serbia (12 October 2021) | vs Luxembourg (11 November 2021) |
| vs Luxembourg (1 September 2021)
vs Republic of Ireland (4 September 2021) | vs Portugal (7 September 2021) |
| | vs Serbia (9 October 2021)
vs Azerbaijan (11 November 2021) | vs Republic of Ireland (14 November 2021) |
| vs Portugal (30 March 2021) | vs Azerbaijan (1 September 2021) |
| vs Azerbaijan (1 September 2021)
vs Serbia (4 September 2021) | vs Serbia (9 October 2021) |
| vs Serbia (4 September 2021) |
| | vs Azerbaijan (24 March 2021)
vs Serbia (27 March 2021) | vs Luxembourg (30 March 2021) |
| vs Azerbaijan (7 September 2021)
vs Luxembourg (12 October 2021) | vs Republic of Ireland (11 November 2021) |
| vs Republic of Ireland (11 November 2021) | vs Serbia (14 November 2021) |
| vs Serbia (27 March 2021)
vs Republic of Ireland (1 September 2021) | vs Azerbaijan (7 September 2021) |
| | vs Republic of Ireland (7 September 2021)
vs Luxembourg (9 October 2021) | vs Azerbaijan (12 October 2021) |
| vs Portugal (27 March 2021) | vs Azerbaijan (30 March 2021) |
| vs Republic of Ireland (24 March 2021)
vs Luxembourg (9 October 2021) | vs Azerbaijan (12 October 2021) |
| | vs Azerbaijan (4 September 2021)
vs Serbia (7 September 2021) | vs Azerbaijan (9 October 2021) |
| Jayson Molumby | |
External links
Notes and References
- News: UEFA preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup 2022: Draw procedures . . PDF . 22 October 2020 . 22 October 2020 . 29 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201029082100/https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/draw-procedures-for-fifa-world-cup-qatar-2022tm-preliminary-draw-uefa.pdf?cloudid=ijoruwm3ly5kgz9wbu6j . live .
- Web site: FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition – Draw Results . UEFA . PDF . 7 December 2020 . 7 December 2020 . 31 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201231182830/https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0264-1108c702e548-758110ebe57c-1000/draw_result_sheet.pdf . live .
- Web site: UEFA preliminary competition format for the FIFA World Cup 2022 . FIFA . PDF . 4 December 2020 . 7 December 2020 . 15 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201215061006/https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/adjlwts3o6c57g0skqor.pdf . live .
- Web site: 2020-12-08 . Qatar links into Euro World Cup qualifying for friendlies . 2024-02-21 . AP News . en.
- Web site: Group A matches with Qatar . UEFA . 11 December 2020 . 12 December 2020 . 31 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201231182744/https://www.uefa.com/european-qualifiers/news/0264-11103d6ec600-5258c3966355-1000/ . live .
- Web site: World Cup Qualifying Calendar – Group A with Qatar . UEFA . 8 December 2020 . 8 December 2020.
- Web site: European Qualifiers for 2022 World Cup: all the fixtures . UEFA . 9 December 2020 . 12 December 2020 . 31 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201231182901/https://www.uefa.com/european-qualifiers/news/0264-110cbe0bf3c8-20065adb8f46-1000/ . live .
- Web site: Fixture List – European Qualifiers 2020–2022: FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition . UEFA . 8 December 2020 . 8 December 2020 . 8 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201208184438/https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0264-110ace207077-148a7a2a0834-1000/worldcupfixtures.pdf . live .
- Web site: Fixture List by Group – European Qualifiers 2020–2022: FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition . UEFA . 8 December 2020 . 8 December 2020.
- Web site: Regulations FIFA World Cup 2022 Preliminary Competition . FIFA.com . Fédération Internationale de Football Association . PDF . 2020 . 7 December 2020 . 7 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201007090150/https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fwc2022-preliminary-comp-web-en.pdf?cloudid=ytkbpnxyvcghx6bebesv . live .
