Crash in the world rankings decided
©IMAGO
In Italy the mood before a World Cup has once again reached its lowest point. The Squadra Azzurra has to take the detour via the playoffs after the 1:4 (1:0) against Norway and is in danger of missing the tournament for the third time in a row. The defeat in Milan was rather irrelevant for the placement in the group (only a 9-0 win would have been enough for direct qualification), but it had a major impact in the long-distance duel for the draw with the DFB team.
“First of all, I would like to apologize to our fans for the bitter result,” said a dejected coach Gennaro Gattuso after the game. “It’s a shame, we played a good first half, like a real team. The biggest disappointment was the second half. Congratulations to Norway, we have to lick our wounds now. I apologize again, but we have to pull ourselves up from the first half.”
The fact that the 47-year-old, who suffered his first defeat in his sixth game as national coach, reacted like this after the game, which was rather insignificant for the table, was due to the constellation in the world rankings. This will be updated next Wednesday and it is already clear that the 2021 European champions will slip significantly. Germany, on the other hand, can not only book their direct World Cup ticket with a win against Slovakia on Monday (8:45 p.m.), but can also definitely return to the top 9.
This would mean that a place in the best draw pot would be guaranteed, regardless of the different seeding variants that FIFA still allows – together with World Cup favorites such as Argentina, Spain, France, Brazil or England. The DFB team was spared World Cup group duels with these teams next summer in America.
There had recently been speculation that FIFA could change its most recently used seeding system and not automatically place teams from the six playoff paths in the worst pot 4, but in the pot to which the best-placed team in the path would belong. In the case of Italy, that would have been pot 1 until the defeat against Norway, to the chagrin of the DFB team, who would then have had to go to pot 2.
Now this new betting variant could even be an advantage for Germany. If the DFB team loses their direct World Cup ticket through a defeat against Slovakia and slips behind their pursuers from Croatia or Morocco in the world rankings, they would not be grouped in Pot 4 as a playoff participant, but at least in Pot 2.
But Nagelsmann certainly doesn’t want to have to use this advantage. Pot 1 is back in on its own. FIFA plans to announce its ticket regulations and seeding pots after the end of the qualifying phase this week.