Best things to look forward to during the FIFA World Cup play-offs

The first round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers are now over. So far, twenty one countries have directly qualified for the tournament to be held in Brazil next summer. There have been no major surprises in terms of qualification; some teams like England cut it rather fine but they did enough to get the job done. The next round is the dreaded play-offs. The draw is officially complete and the play-offs will be over by late November. The play-offs see twenty two nations competing for the remaining eleven spots.

Let’s take a look at a few things to look forward to during the qualifiers:

Ronaldo vs. Ibrahimovich: Clash of the titans

1) Zlatan Ibrahimovich vs. Cristiano Ronaldo – When Portugal and Sweden were drawn to play against one another, the first thing that came to most people’s minds was that Ronaldo and Ibrahimovich, two of the best forwards of their generation, would be playing against one another. Both will be crucial to their countries hopes of winning the play-off and both would like to play in the World Cup next year, especially Zlatan, given his age. The flipside of this draw is that fans will only get to see one of the two superstars at Brazil next year. Ah well, can’t have it all now, can we?