World Cup 2018 qualifying: Final standings, play-off seeding revealed

Updated 10/10/2017 at 22:00 GMT

We now know nine of the 13 European teams who will join hosts Russia at next summer’s World Cup finals – with eight of nine runners-up (sorry, Slovakia) set to contest the play-offs.

Toni Kroos, Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford

Image credit: Eurosport

A quick reminder of how the process works: the nine group winners all advance to the World Cup finals. The eight runners-up with the best record against the teams placed first, third, fourth and fifth in their groups will go into the play-offs.

That means one unlucky runner-up has to miss out entirely – and, with four defeats to their name, Slovakia are the poor souls who will not feature in the play-offs.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here’s how that mini-league finished:

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Belgium, Germany, England, Poland, Iceland, Serbia, Spain, France and Portugal are the teams to have won their groups, while Italy, Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Greece are the teams in the play-offs. Slovakia, runners-up in England's Group F, needed Greece to slip-up against Gibraltar on Tuesday night to sneak into the top eight. It didn't happen.

PLAY-OFF SEEDINGS

Seeded	Unseeded
Italy	Sweden
Switzerland	Northern Ireland
Croatia	Republic of Ireland
Denmark	Greece

Perhaps harshly, the play-offs will be seeded, keeping apart Italy, Switzerland, Croatia and Denmark. The draw takes place on October 17, with the two-legged ties taking place from 9-14 November.

The seedings aren't officially announced until Monday, but we - and plenty of other trustworthy sources - have done the maths in advance.

Here are the final standings from all the groups.

GROUP A

Antoine Griezmann, France

Image credit: Getty Images

France went into their clash with Belarus chasing a victory to guarantee them a place in Russia, but Sweden’s defeat in the Netherlands ensured they would have progressed regardless of their result. Still, Didier Deschamps' side won 2-1 anyway.

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GROUP B

Portugal players celebrate.

Image credit: Eurosport

Portugal snatched top spot off Switzerland with a 2-0 victory on the final day. Somewhat ridiculously, the Swiss have to go into the play-off despite winning nine out of their 10 games. Imagine if they missed out now...

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GROUP C

Mats Hummels of Germany after the FIFA 2018 World Cup Qualifier between Germany and Norway

Image credit: Getty Images

Germany sealed qualification in style with a 3-1 win in Belfast and a 5-1 win against Azerbaijan. Northern Ireland have finished as one of the eight best second-placed teams - despite their 1-0 defeat to Norway - and they'll have a great chance in the play-offs.

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GROUP D

Serbia welcomed Georgia to the Stadion Rajko Mitic in the knowledge that a win against the second-from-bottom side would be enough to win the group, and so it proved with Aleksandar Prijovic hitting a 74th-minute winner in a 1-0 win.

Republic of Ireland’s James McClean celebrates scoring their first goal

Image credit: Reuters

That meant it was a straight shootout between Wales and the Republic of Ireland in Cardiff – a shootout settled by a James McClean strike with 57 minutes gone that saw Martin O'Neill's men made the play-offs.

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GROUP E

Poland's forward Robert Lewandowski (L) celebrates scoring his sides's third goal during the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualification match between Poland and Kazakhstan

Image credit: Getty Images

Poland secured qualification following their 4-2 win over Montenegro on Sunday. Denmark's point against Romania made sure of a play-off place.

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GROUP F

Harry Kane of England (R) in discussion with team mate Raheem Sterling of England

Image credit: Getty Images

England secured qualification with a dour 1-0 win against Slovenia but Scotland's 2-2 draw with Slovenia handed second spot to Slovakia - 3-0 winners over Malta - but results in other groups meant that they missed out on a play-off spot.

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GROUP G

Spain's midfielder Asier Illarramendi (L) celebrates his goal with Spain's forward Aritz Aduriz and Jose Callejon.

Image credit: Eurosport

Spain were already certain of a top-two finish and confirmed their place at the World Cup finals on Friday night when they beat Albania 3-0, and a 1-0 win against Israel made it nine wins in 10 games for Julen Lopetegui's men.

Italy, who drew 1-1 with Macedonia on Friday, beat Albania 1-0 but had already been handed a guaranteed play-off place when Bosnia lost to Belgium on Saturday night.

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GROUP H

Hazard celebrates victory.

Image credit: Getty Images

Belgium topped the group, dropping just one point en route to Russia, with Greece completing their journey into the play-offs with a 4-0 win over Gibraltar.

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GROUP I

Croatia's Luka Modric attends a training session

Image credit: Reuters

This looked an extremely competitive group before a ball had been kicked and so it proved, but it was Iceland who emerged as group winners courtesy of a 2-0 win over Kosovo.

Croatia, who sacked Ante Cacic and replaced him with Zlatko Dalic on Saturday, beat Ukraine 2-0 courtesy of a double from Andrej Kramaric to grab a play-off spot.

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