Ten teams have booked their place at the World Cup 2022 tournament on Qatari soil via the European region. The ten teams won their respective groups in the first round of the European qualifiers for the World Cup 2022 tournament to book their place in Qatar.
1966 world champions England secured their place in Qatar by beating hosts San Marino heavily. The English team scored ten goals without conceding any. Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane was responsible for four of the goals.
In-form Arsenal midfielder Emile Smith-Rowe made his first start for England and his second appearance against San Marino and he was able to mark with a goal. He scored his first goal for England in the second half of the game to help his country to next year’s FIFA World Cup tournament. The other players who scored for the English team include AS Roma hitman Tammy Abraham, Arsenal attacker Bukayo Saka and Manchester United defender Harry Maguire.
One of the biggest stories of the European qualifiers came from Group A as Serbia stopped Portugal from securing automatic qualification for the World Cup 2022 tournament. Portugal were in a good position before they took on the Serbians at home as they needed just a point. In the end, they were beaten by their visitors despite taking the lead at the start of the game.
Lille midfielder Renato Sanches gave Portugal an early lead to set his team on the way to meeting their target. However, the Portuguese team could not achieve their target despite taking a third minute lead. Dusan Tadic and substitute Aleksandar Mitrovic scored either side of the half-time break to give Serbia a memorable 2-1 win.