{"id":1388,"date":"2025-11-17T21:56:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2025-11-17T21:56:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:56:02","slug":"how-will-world-cup-play-offs-be-determined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=1388","title":{"rendered":"How will World Cup play-offs be determined?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are four places to be won, through four play-off paths each containing four teams with one-legged semi-finals and finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The draw takes place at 12:00 GMT on Thursday, which will create the individual paths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the semi-finals, the seeded teams will be at home: <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pot 1 v Pot 4<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pot 2 v Pot 3<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Each of the four paths will have one team from each pot, feeding into a final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The home advantage in each of the finals will be determined by draw on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So, is being in Pot 1 more favourable than Pot 2? It does not make too much difference<b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\"> <\/b>apart from being kept away from the other Pot 1 teams in the paths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While Pot 4 has teams who failed to make the top two of their World Cup groups, there are nations within it who will have a higher world ranking that some in Pot 3. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The other argument is that the teams in Pot 3 have better recent form, so should be seen as stronger opponents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">What&#8217;s most important is being in Pot 1 or Pot 2, and guaranteeing a home semi-final.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are four places to be won, through four play-off paths each containing four teams with one-legged semi-finals and finals. The draw takes place at 12:00 GMT on Thursday, which will create the individual paths. In the semi-finals, the seeded teams will be at home: Pot 1 v Pot 4 Pot 2 v Pot 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}