National coach Louis van Gaal – who himself is not in the draw because of his recent positive corona test – said last week that he knew which group head the Orange would go to. “That will be Qatar, because I’m lucky.”
On Thursday, FIFA announced the new world rankings. The Netherlands is still in tenth place. The Orange squad has passed Denmark after Saturday’s win, but Mexico jumped up a few places by qualifying for the final tournament on the last day of play.
Strikingly enough, Belgium is no longer the best football country in the world. Brazil pushed the Belgians from place one, where the Red Devils had been since October 2018.
Open tickets
Not every World Cup ticket has been sold yet. The bowls with balls contain three ‘anonymous’ cards. Two more intercontinental play-offs will be played in early June. Peru competes with the winner of United Arab Emirates-Australia for a ticket. At the same time, New Zealand and Costa Rica will play one more match for placement.
