World Cup 2018: Goals, tears and earthquake alerts on the road to Russia
Updated 12:09 PM ET, Thu November 16, 2017
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Thirty-two teams will take part in Russia 2018. The hosts were already guaranteed a place, but the others have been whittled down, courtesy of an arduous qualification procession, from 209 nations at the start of qualification to 31.
Many of Europe's leading countries have made the cut. Four-time World Cup winners Germany, former champions France, England and Spain and Euro 2016 champions Portugal will be among the favorites. They are joined by Belgium -- who with 4.3 goals per game averaged the most goals scored in qualifying -- Switzerland, Croatia and Denmark.
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And let's not forget about Iceland, a country with a population of just 335,000, who became the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup.
Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia are the qualifiers from Africa, while Australia, who scored 48 goals in qualifying -- which was more than any other country -- are through, along with fellow Asian qualifiers Iran, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
South America is represented by Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Peru, while Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama make up the slots allocated to North and Central America and the Caribbean.
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