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Portugal land Sweden in World Cup playoff draw

By on October 21, 2013
Cristiano Ronaldo (right), will face Zlatan Ibrahimovic (left), in the Uefa World Cup playoffs

Cristiano Ronaldo (right), will face Zlatan Ibrahimovic (left), in the Uefa World Cup 2014 playoffs

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal were drawn against Sweden, while Ukraine will take on France in the Uefa 2014 World Cup playoff draw held at Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

Greece will also host Romania and Croatia will travel to Iceland in the first legs of the two other draws, which will be held on November 15th, while the second legs will take place on November 19th.  The four winners of the legs will join the nine European nations that finished top of their qualifying groups: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, England, and Spain at the next summer’s World Cup in Brazil.

But of course, the standout match will be Portugal v Sweden because of it’s star attractions.  Paris Saint-Germian forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been involved in over 50% of Sweden’s goals, while Cristiano Ronaldo is already Portugal’s third highest capped player and second highest scorer ever at the age of 28, and remains one of the best players in the world.  The tie is arguably the least predictable of the four, after Portugal finished second behind Russia in Group F and Sweden ended as runners-up in Group C.

Portugal manager Paulo Bento also believes the matches will be hard-fought, especially following the two nation’s 0-0 draw the last time they met.

“It’s going to be a very even playoff against Sweden,” Bento told Eurosport. “They do have Zlatan, after all, but it’s not only him they are a strong team overall. They’ve been many times in the final phases of major tournaments so we need to find the best way possible to reach our goal. It is a difficult tie, but we are sure that we will be in Brazil next year.”

Although France manager Didier Deschamps has admitted to being thankful his side avoided Portugal in the draw, Ukraine could prove a challenge following their positive showing in Group H, in which they finished one point behind England in second.  France, who were surprisingly not a seeded nation, with England, Portugal, Greece and Croatia all being seeded instead, finished behind Spain in Group I, despite only losing one of their eight matches.
Iceland meanwhile performed miles above expectations in Group E, although Lars Lagerback’s side still have Croatia in their way.  But if they do beat Croatia, who will be hungry to qualify after failing to for the first time in 2010, they will qualify for their first ever World Cup, becoming the least populated nation ever to compete with a population of only 328,000.

Yet the small island nation should be relatively happy with their draw, with Lagerback even expressing a good view on the draw.

“I think Croatia is OK,” Lagerback said. “The advantage is I know the new coach [Niko Kovac] a little bit and I also had experience against Croatia when I was coaching the Swedish team, so I know what we can expect.”

But Romania coach Victor Piturca said he was disappointed with his side’s draw with Greece, despite beating the 2004 European Championship winners 3-1 when they last met, back in 2011.

“I am not satisfied, I wanted another team,” Piturca said. “Greece are strong opponents, they’re a well-organized team.”

Uefa 2014 World Cup playoff draw:

Portugal v Sweden
Ukraine v France
Greece v Romania
Iceland v Greece

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.