Portugal to Play Sweden for Place in World Cup Finals!

The draw has been made for the UEFA region World Cup Finals playoffs with some tasty match-ups in store.

While giants Portugal and France have avoided each other, Portugal have ended up facing another star in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his Sweden team. This is definitely the tie of the round with both sides pretty evenly matched - Portugal and Sweden have very good talent up front in Ronaldo, Nani, Ibrahimovic, Elmander, etc. but their defence is not very good (consider Sweden's defence in that 5-3 defeat to Germany at home). Expect to see plenty of goals in this tie possibly.

Last time Ukraine played France, the heavens opened.

France have landed an in-form Ukraine side, hoping to make a better show of qualifying than they did against Ireland 4 years ago when their campaign was overshadowed by Thierry Henry's Hand of God. The Ukraine have hit form at the right time and they are the seeded team in this tie meaning that France will have to go to what will probably be a snowy and cold Ukraine first. Mind you France did win the last competitive fixture between these two back in EURO 2012 - back then, that game in Donetsk was delayed due a massive thunderstorm (it'd be a surprise to see a repeat though).

Can in-form Spurs midfielder, Gylfi Sigurdsson, make history for his country? 

First-timers Iceland will have to overcome a talented but disoriented Croatia team to make their first World Cup Finals - the Icelanders do have a bit of a chance given that Croatia have just changed their coach, having sacked Igor Stimac after they finished a distant 2nd to Belgium in their group. Iceland do have home advantage first up too so will go all out attacking in Reykjavik before boarding the plane to Zagreb to hopefully finish off history.

Romania and Greece will play each other for the other World Cup Finals spot with Romania looking to book their place in the Finals for the first time since 1998, one of the last years of the glorious era for Romanian football when they had the likes of Gheorghe Hagi, Florin Raducuiou, Dan Petrescu, Illie Dumitrescu, etc.

However, Romania will have to do it while Greece are in the middle of one of their boom periods in world football - still going strong nearly 10 years after their famous EURO 2004 win and improving their rugged style of football.

So the ties are as follows (games on November 15 shown below, reversed on Nov 19)
Portugal v Sweden
Ukraine v France
Iceland v Croatia
Greece v Romania

My tips - Portugal, France, Iceland and Greece to qualify