2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round facts for kids

The UEFA second round was a special part of the qualifying games for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It was like a "playoff" round for football teams in Europe.

Eight teams that finished second in their groups during the first round got another chance to qualify. They played against each other in two matches, one at home and one away. These games happened in November 2017.

The four teams that won their playoff matches were Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland. They joined the other teams that had already won their groups and went to the World Cup!

The teams that lost in this round were Greece, Italy, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland.

The draw to decide which teams played against each other was held in Zürich on October 17, 2017. Teams were ranked using the FIFA World Rankings to make sure the stronger teams didn't play each other too early.

Teams That Qualified for Playoffs

Eight teams that came in second place in their groups got to play in these special playoff matches. To decide which eight teams were the best runners-up, they looked at how many points each team earned in their group games.

How Runner-Up Teams Were Ranked

The best eight second-place teams were chosen based on these rules, in this order:

• Highest number of points
• Goal difference (how many more goals they scored than they let in)
• Highest number of goals scored
• Fair play points (teams that played fairly got extra points)
• Drawing of lots (if everything else was still tied, they would draw names)

Seeding and Draw

The draw for the second round happened on October 17, 2017, in Zürich, Switzerland. Teams were put into two groups, called "pots," based on their FIFA World Rankings from October 2017.

• Seeded teams (Pot 1) were the higher-ranked teams.
• Unseeded teams (Pot 2) were the lower-ranked teams.

Each playoff match had one seeded team playing against one unseeded team. The draw also decided which team would play at home first.

Playoff Matches

The first games were played from November 9 to 11, 2017. The second games were played from November 12 to 14, 2017. The team that scored more goals in total over both games (this is called the "aggregate score") won and went to the World Cup.

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Switzerland	1–0	Northern Ireland	1–0	0–0
Croatia	4–1	Greece	4–1	0–0
Denmark	5–1	Republic of Ireland	0–0	5–1
Sweden	1–0	Italy	1–0	0–0

Switzerland vs. Northern Ireland

• First game: Northern Ireland 0–1 Switzerland
• Second game: Switzerland 0–0 Northern Ireland

Switzerland won 1–0 on total goals and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Croatia vs. Greece

• First game: Croatia 4–1 Greece
• Second game: Greece 0–0 Croatia

Croatia won 4–1 on total goals and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Denmark vs. Republic of Ireland

• First game: Denmark 0–0 Republic of Ireland
• Second game: Republic of Ireland 1–5 Denmark

Denmark won 5–1 on total goals and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Sweden vs. Italy

• First game: Sweden 1–0 Italy
• Second game: Italy 0–0 Sweden

Sweden won 1–0 on total goals and qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Goalscorers

In these 8 playoff matches, 13 goals were scored in total. This means there was an average of about 1.63 goals per match.

3 goals

1 goal

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Segunda ronda de la clasificación de UEFA para la Copa Mundial de Fútbol de 2018 para niños