Top 5 European players from this month's 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers

There were a few top performers in this month's qualifiers.

It was another roller-coaster, action-paced international week in the UEFA zone. The competition for places at the 2022 FIFA World Cup has intensified after the latest pair of qualifiers.

Germany and Denmark became the first two teams to book their tickets to Qatar, but with 11 spots still up for grabs, all's not over yet. There are two more rounds for most European teams before their fate is decided. With a handful of major teams yet to qualify for the mega event, November is going to be epic.

European Qualifiers for World Cup: the state of play across the 10 groups...

#WCQ

We were treated to many epic moments in the past week that it's impossible to turn the page without reminiscing over some of them. On that note, here's a look at the five best performers from this month's qualifiers:

Honourable mentions: Sandi Lovric (Slovenia), Dusan Vlahovic (Serbia), Eran Zahavi (Israel) and Aleksandar Isak (Sweden).

#5 Josip Illicic (Slovenia) - 3 goals

Illicic is having the best year with Slovenia, netting six goals so far.

Arguably the best Slovenian player in modern history, Josip Illicic starred for his team once again this month with three goals in two qualifying games. He started with a brace in the 4-0 drubbing of Malta before netting the only goal in Slovenians' 2-1 loss to Russia, which unfortunately ended their qualifying hopes.

Josip Ilicic (ST➡️RM) 🇸🇮 - (Malta 0-4 Slovenia)

2 GOALS + 8.5 M/R

#TOTW4 | #TOTW | #FIFA22 | #FUT22 | #Slovenia | #WorldCupQualifiers https://t.co/T3xegdQSMT

The Falcons subsequently dropped to fourth place with only ten points after eight games, seven behind Croatia and nine adrift of Russia. But their job would've been a lot harder without Illicic, who has accounted for exactly half of Slovenia's ten qualifying goals so far, netting four and assisting one.

#4 Teemu Pukki (Finland) - 3 goals

Pukki is one of the leading scorers in the UEFA FIFA World Cup qualifiers with six goals.

What Illicic is to Slovenia, Teemu Pukki is to Finland. The Norwich City striker guided his team to Euro 2020 with his blistering exploits. He is now keeping his team alive in the race for a first-ever FIFA World Cup participation.

Get this - the Huuhkajat have only managed seven goals in the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers, six of which have been scored by Pukki, including three in the last week. His effort against Ukraine didn't yield dividends, as Finland lost 2-1. But the 31-year-old made amends by scoring both their goals in his team's 2-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 0 - 2 Finland 🇫🇮

Teemu Pukki with a brace ⚽️⚽️ https://t.co/JHNhslfWsO

It brought the Nordic outfit up to eight points in Group D, just one behind second-placed Ukraine. So they still realistically have a chance of progressing into the FIFA World Cup playoffs next month.