Iraq made history in the early hours of this Wednesday (1st), beating Bolivia 2-1, at the BBVA stadium, known as The Steel Giantin Guadalupe, in the Metropolitan Region of Monterrey, Mexico, and qualified for the World Cup.
With the triumph in the second final, the Asians returned to the World Cup after 40 years, as they only played in one World Cup, in 1986, interestingly, also in Mexico, in which they were eliminated after three defeats to the home team, Paraguay and Belgium.
With the classification ahead of the South Americans, the Iraqis move on to Group I. Their debut will be against Norway, on June 16, in Boston, in the United States. The next opponents will be France, on June 22, in Philadelphia, also in the USA, and Senegal, on June 26, in Toronto, Canada.
Path to classification
As one of the best ranked teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Iraq skipped the first phase of the Qualifiers. In the second phase, they won all six games in Group F, against Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and gained all 18 possible points.
In the third phase, the Iraqis finished in third place in Group B, with 15 points in ten rounds, seeing and advancing to the World Cup, going to the first phase of the repechage with Oman and watching Palestine and Kuwait being eliminated.
In the fourth phase, the first of the Asian playoff, Iraq came in second place in Group B, behind , which secured a place in the World Cup due to the number of goals scored, while Indonesia ended up eliminated.
In the fifth phase, the final of the Asian repechage, the Iraqis made it after two matches. In the world repechage, due to the FIFA ranking, they entered directly into the decision, in which they faced .
