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Following another round of thrilling matches as we enter the final straight in qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA today announced that the European play-off draw will take place in Zurich on Tuesday, October 17 at 14:00h CET. The draw will be streamed live on FIFA.com and YouTube.
While all nine teams qualifying directly as European group winners will be known on October 10, the eight best runners-up will be decided by ranking criteria as stated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Regulations, namely points, goal difference, goals scored, goals scored away from home and disciplinary ranking, with the results against teams ranked 6th not being taken into account. The eight teams will be paired into four home-and-away ties, with the matches foreseen to be played in the period between 9 and 14 November.
The play-off ties will be decided by aggregate score over two legs, though, in the event of a draw, the team that scores more away goals will qualify. If the winner is still not decided at the end of normal time in the second leg, the match will go to extra time with two periods of 15 minutes and the away goals rule still applied. If the scores are still level at the end of extra time, the tie will go to penalties, as described in the Laws of the Game.
Draw procedure
The eight teams will be seeded in two pots with the four highest-ranked teams placed in one pot. The ranking will be based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking published on October 16.
One team will be drawn from Pot 1 and the other will be drawn from Pot 2, with the two balls then placed into a third pot. These two balls will be stirred again and drawn one by one. The first ball drawn will be the home team for the first leg. The same process will be repeated for the remaining balls in each pot.
