The 5 Highest Ranked Nations to Have Missed out on the 2022 World Cup

Several major countries have missed out on a spot at the World Cup in Qatar in November. The teams missing out includes a 4-time champion, former runners-ups, and other competition mainstays that have been present at many other tournaments previously.

Nearly all of the 32 teams competing have their place confirmed, with just three spots left to be filled. These three places will be decided very soon, with the matches set to take place this month. One of Wales, Scotland or Ukraine will take the final UEFA spot, and the final two teams will be decided via the inter-confederation play-offs. Costa Rica will face New Zealand, and one of Australia, Peru and UAE will take the final spot.

Here, we take a quick look at the five highest-ranked teams to have missed out on the tournament…

Despite recently winning the European Championships, Italy surprisingly missed out on the World Cup after they fell to minnows North Macedonia in their play-off match, and it means that the Azzurri have now missed out on a second consecutive World Cup after their omission from the 2018 tournament.

The Azzurri actually lost no games in Group C, Italy won less and drew more games than table-toppers Switzerland, which meant that they had to settle for a place in the play-offs. And in that play-off, Aleksandar Trajkovski struck in the 92nd minute to stun the 4-time World Cup winners and ensure that they would miss out on yet another World Cup.

Colombia failed to make it a seventh appearance in the World Cup, as they finished sixth in CONMEBOL qualifying.

The top four teams instantly gain qualification, whilst the fifth-placed side (Peru) advances to the inter-confederation play-offs. Colombia finished just a point behind Peru, which sees them miss out on the World Cup after a quarter-final exit in 2014 and a round-of-16 exit in 2018.

La Tricolor won just five of their 18 qualifying games, drawing eight and losing five, and it is that form that has ensured they miss out on a third consecutive World Cup.

The final team ranked in the top 20 in FIFA’s World Rankings to miss out for the World Cup is Sweden, who are the second biggest omission for Europe based on their FIFA ranking.

Of course, based on how Wales performs in their play-off match this could change due to The Dragons being one place ahead of Colombia in 18th, but currently, Sweden are UEFA’s second-biggest omission.

The Swedes performed admirably in their qualifying phase, finishing second behind Spain in Group B and handed a play-off match against the Czech Republic. They triumphed 1-0 over the Czechs in Stockholm, and then faced Poland for a spot at Qatar - goals from Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zielinski got the Poles to the tournament at Sweden’s expense.

Chile will be missing out on their second successive World Cup after a seventh-place finish in South American qualifying.

La Roja have been knocked out of the round-of-16 stage in their last three tournament appearances but failed to qualify in 2018 and after picking up just five wins from their 18 qualifying games.

The reasons as to why Chile has failed to qualify for the 2022 tournament are the fact that they had four draws and nine losses in their qualifying campaign, with vital defeats against the likes of Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador keeping them from playing in Qatar.

African football powerhouses Nigeria shockingly missed out on their fourth consecutive, and seventh overall, World Cup appearance after defeat over two legs against Ghana in CAF qualifying.

The Super Eagles finished top of their second qualifying-round group with 13 points from 6 matches and were rewarded with a tie against the Black Stars.

The first leg ended in a goalless draw, but in the return fixture it finished 1-1 at full-time, with Thomas Partey’s first-half strike enough to ensure Ghana qualified, but for Nigeria, it meant that they missed out on a spot in Qatar.