World Cup qualifiers are a series of games which are played in order to determine who will qualify for the next World Cup, in this case the 2022 Qatar Tournament. They offer a chance to see every major side in action before the tournament, as well as giving smaller nations a chance to make it to the biggest footballing tournament in the world.
The unpredictability of the qualifiers, which see some of the biggest footballing sides fail to qualify as 211 sides are condensed to just 32, means that there is significant reward for those who brave the odds and persist with World Cup Qualifier betting.
How Does The World Cup Qualifiers Work?
32 sides make up every World Cup, and of these places 31 are available to be attained through qualifying. The only guaranteed nation guaranteed to be represented at the tournament is the host nation, in this instance Qatar. The other sides are decided via six different qualification processes, dependent on the footballing federation which nations fall under. Two examples are given below.
UEFA Qualifiers
UEFA are the European footballing federation, and 13 nations from this federation qualify for the World Cup. The qualification process sees 55 sides enter 10 groups (Of either five or six teams), where they will all play each other twice in a double round-robin format. From these, the top side in each group will qualify automatically, whilst the ten runners up will be joined by two other sides based on UEFA ranking to fight it out for the final three available spaces.
Europe has seen a great number of upsets in recent history, with highly decorated sides failing to qualify for the tournament. This was the case in 2018, where 2006 World Cup champions Italy failed to qualify for the tournament in Russia. 2010 finalists the Netherlands also failed to qualify. These sides were odds-on favourites to qualify from their groups, which demonstrates the competitive nature of the competition, as well as the potential that exists for successful online betting.
CAF Qualifiers
CAF are allocated five World Cup slots, which 54 nations fight for. Their qualification occurs over three rounds. In the first round, the 28 lowest ranked nations face-each other over two legs, and the fourteen winners of these ties advance to the second round.
In the second round, these fourteen winners, along with the other 26 sides, are divided into ten groups of four, who will play a home and away round-robin tournament, with the ten winners advancing to the third round. In the final round, the 10 winners are drawn against each other, over two legs, and the 5 winners who emerge qualify for the World Cup.
There are often big upsets which occur here, with sides such as the Ivory Coast, Algeria and Cameroon all missing out on World Cup qualification. The group format being so competitive means that great odds can be found for anyone who can pick a winner.
BetGold Provides Top Betting Tips For The World Cup Qualifiers
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All of these features provide a truly rewarding experience when it comes to betting on the World Cup qualifiers.
