Italy have been drawned with Sweden in their World Cup play-off draw. The opening game will be played in Sweden in November and the second leg will be played in Italy.

 

Italy finished second in their qualifying group behind Spain to reach the playoffs, with their opponents Sweden narrowly beating Netherlands to a place in the draw, with France topping their pool. Italy had been the seeded team going into the draw as the 15th-placed team in the FIFA World Ranking, with Sweden 25th.

 

Fortunately for the Azzurri, Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his international retirement after last summer’s European Championships. However, they will likely be without, arguably, their most important striker, Andrea Belotti, who’s sidelined by a lower-body injury.

 

The other games drawn are:

Northern Ireland-Switzerland

Croatia-Greece

Denmark-Ireland

Sweden-Italy

 

Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, and Denmark were the seeded teams.

 

The first legs for each tie will take place from Nov. 9-11 with the second legs on Nov. 12-14.