Countries You’re Surprised Didn’t Make It to The World Cup

It’s dog-eat-dog in football. What squads aren’t in the dog park?

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By Jeri Corn
December 1, 2022

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World Cup is all about passion. Passion for football. Passion for your favorite players. Passion for having your mates over for a football party. But mostly, passion for your favorite squad. But with only 32 nations are competing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, quite a few of the 211 FIFA nations did not make it to the tournament, including a few surprises. Here are some of them.

Norway

Why you thought they were in: Erling Haaland!
Why they’re not in: Soccer is not a one-man sport.
One of the greatest young talents in Erling Haaland will be one of the best players who will not take part in the biggest soccer tournament on Earth.
If Haaland scores just one goal in a game for Manchester City, that’s almost a bad game for him. But we should remember that he is not the only player on the pitch. This is a team game. You can’t win without a decent support cast. Even Messi could not make it to a World Cup Final without Javier Mascherano and Gonzalo Higuain in 2014.
After a 0-0 draw in Oslo against Latvia during qualifying kept them from the top of their qualifying group, a 2-0 loss to The Netherlands three days later put them in third place in their group and out of World Cup contention.

Italy

Why you thought they were in: They just won Euros! And they won four World Cups!
Why they’re not in: That’s a different competition.
Less than a year after Italy beat England in Wembley to win EURO 2020, they learned that they would not be in the 2022 World Cup. The Italians had to go through another round of qualifying in order to make the World Cup after they finished second in Group C UEFA qualifying. All they had to do was defeat North Macedonia and then the winner of the Portugal-Turkey match.
That’s all they had to do. They couldn’t even get past step one. At home. To a country ranked more than 60 places behind them according to FIFA. The four-time World Cup winners have now failed to qualify for a World Cup since 2014 and are the highest ranked team to not make the trip to Qatar.

Egypt

Why you thought they were in: Mohammad Salah
Why they’re not in: Penalties and laser pointers.
Mohamed Salah is still the star in Liverpool and in Egypt. He was one of the biggest names going into the 2018 World Cup in Russia until they were knocked out early on. Hopes were high for a return and a chance for redemption in Qatar.
Egypt cruised through to the final round of qualifying and had a one goal advantage over opponent going into the final match of their home-and-away series. If Egypt didn’t allow a goal, they were in. Alas, that dream was dashed three minutes in. Despite the early setback, Egyptian keeper Mohamed El-Shenawy was brilliant between the posts to keep the team alive throughout the night as the game snaked its way to penalties.
The (illegally brought in) lasers, with their blinding neon green lights, were out and about whenever an Egyptian in red was on the ball, but the lasers turned the pitch into a disco floor when the away side came up to take their penalty shots. Salah’s face turned alien green from the harsh lights when he came up for his penalty, which flew far from danger. Just two Egyptians managed to put their respective penalties on target, one of them saved, as Senegal’s Sadio Mané put the final penalty away to push Egypt out of contention. Complaints and anger erupted from the Egyptian side to how they were treated, but they fell on deaf ears.

Chile

Why you thought they were in: Success in Copa America
Why they’re not in: South America qualifying is excruciating.
The nation that pushed 2014 host Brazil to penalties in the Round of 16, and the winner of the 2015 and 2016 Copa America, will not be in the World Cup. In fact, that match against Brazil was their last World Cup match.
South American (CONMEBOL) World Cup qualifying is without mercy for any nation, even for the mighty Brazilians and Argentinians. Qualification involved 18 total matches for each nation over 17 months. In order to make it, you must win and win often.
Chile managed only four points in their first four matches (one win, one draw, two losses), with only one of those nations making it to the tournament in Qatar. Follow that with one point in the next four matches (one draw, three losses) and it was a near impossible task to make it to the 2022 tournament. That would eventually be proven right.

Ukraine

Why you thought they were in: They were playing with heart and for pride of a country at war.
Why they’re not in: Playing with heart will only take you so far in this game.
Ukraine has received support in all kinds of ways since February 24. Military support, financial support and refugees finding welcoming arms around the world. It has been such an awe-inspiring sight to watch Ukrainians rally together in the face of such odds, even when forced from their homes and country.
Ukraine won their first game of the second round of UEFA qualifying over Scotland in Glasgow. If they won in Wales four days later, they would be in Qatar. But Gareth Bale’s goal in the 34th minute was all that was needed to keep Ukraine out of the final tournament.

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