UEFA World Cup Qualifiers: Where to watch all the Path B matches featuring Poland, Russia, Sweden and Czech Republic

Topics: TV Schedules, TV Listings, FIFA World Cup, Russia, Poland, Sweden, Czech Republic

The battle for one final spot is on with one place already confirmed under special consideration.

The second round of UEFA's qualification tournament for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is set to be played in the coming days with tickets for the mundial up for grabs. Dubbed the playoffs semi-final, the games will determine who the final three European teams that will join the group winners at the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

Who are the nations involved?

The final three teams that will be eligible to represent Europe at Qatar 2022 will be sourced from three different paths. Path A will feature Wales vs Austria and Scotland vs Ukraine. Sweden vs Czech Republic will be the only game in Path B with Poland getting a bye following the suspension of Russia. Path C will feature games between Italy and North Macedonia as well as Portugal and Turkey.

Note: Each play-off path features two single-leg semi-finals, and one single-leg final.

Path B preview

Poland vs Russia*: The game will not come off as initially planned after Poland were given a bye to the final following the suspension of Russia. FIFA suspended the host of the previous edition of the World Cup on February 28, four days after Ukraine was invaded.

Although the Russian Football Union announced they would appeal their suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, their request for the ban to be lifted was rejected. Prior to that, Poland had declared their stance not to play any matches against Russia regardless of the location, with Sweden and Czech Republic proceeding to do same.

Sweden vs Czech Republic: Unlike the other match in the bracket, the clash between Sweden and Czech Republic is expected to go ahead as planned on Thursday night. The winner of the encounter will go head to head with Poland following the suspension of Russia. The fate of both Sweden and Czech Republic are in their respective hands and the former will particularly look to build on their impressive home form to cross to set up an all-important clash with Poland.

Janne Andersson's men approach the upcoming game without a home defeat since September 2020, and it is a record they will not easily concede taking the away form of their opponent into consideration. Nevertheless, the chances of Czech Republic are significantly boosted by the fact that they have also not lost any of their last five outings since losing to Belgium in September.