Who needs what in World Cup qualifying?

ByKeifer MacDonald

BBC Sport journalist

England will seal a place at next summer's World Cup finals in Brazil if they avoid defeat against Spain on Friday (20:00 - all times BST).

The Lionesses are in Mallorca to face the world champions in their penultimate qualifying fixture.

After defeating Iceland and Spain in April to make it four wins from as many qualifying matches, Sarina Wiegman's side are three points clear at the top of Group A3.

Win or draw on Friday and the European champions would become the first home nation to qualify for the World Cup, with Spain forced to go through the play-offs.

Next summer's tournament in Brazil will feature 32 teams and run from 24 June to 25 July.

In total, eight different stadiums will host matches, all of which were used when Brazil hosted the men's finals in 2014.

England and the Republic of Ireland enter these fixtures with a chance of securing direct qualification for the World Cup.

The 53 European teams hoping to earn a spot at next summer's finals were split into three leagues at the start of qualifying.

Both League A and League B are made up of 16 nations across four groups. The remaining 21 nations compete in League C in groups of three and four.

The four group winners in League A - where England and the Republic of Ireland are placed - can qualify directly for the finals.

Should England lose in Spain on Friday, then it gets complicated.

If defeat is by a bigger margin than the 1-0 win they earned in the reverse fixture at Wembley, the only way they can finish top is to better Spain's result in their final group games on Tuesday (20:00), against Ukraine and in Iceland respectively.

If England lose by a single goal against Spain and they finish on the same points, tie-breakers such as goal difference, number of away goals and even disciplinary records could decide the group.

The Republic of Ireland are third in their group, but their fate remains in their own hands as they face the two teams above them - taking on the Netherlands in Cork on Friday (19:30) before travelling to France for their final fixture on Tuesday (20:00).

Win both and the Republic of Ireland will seal a place at the World Cup - for only the second time in their history - regardless of results elsewhere.

As Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in League B, however, the picture is slightly different.

The best they can achieve is a play-off place by finishing in the top three - a position both have already secured with two games to spare.

Scotland are in top spot before back-to-back fixtures with Israel on Friday (17:00) and Tuesday (18:00).

Meanwhile, Wales are second in their group on goal difference behind Czech Republic whom they host on Tuesday (18:00), after travelling to Montenegro on Friday (17:00).

Finally, Northern Ireland need a point from their final games in Turkey (Friday, 18:00) and at home to Switzerland (Tuesday, 18:00) to secure a play-off berth.

Reaching the play-offs extends hope of making the World Cup, but teams will still have to navigate two rounds in the autumn to get to Brazil.

Elsewhere, Denmark and Germany are front-runners to win the two remaining League A groups and secure direct passage to next summer's tournament.

Denmark are top of Group A1, one point ahead of Sweden and three ahead of Italy heading into the final two matches.

If they beat Sweden on Friday [19:15] and Italy fail to take maximum points from their game against Serbia [19:00], then they will seal their spot at a second successive World Cup.

However, victory for Sweden would see them leapfrog their Nordic neighbours and take top spot before the final round of matches.

In Group A4, Germany can continue their impressive record of featuring in every World Cup by beating Norway in what is essentially a winner-takes-all fixture on Friday [19:35].

The two-time champions are one point clear of Norway heading into the last two matches of the campaign.

After Friday's game in Cologne, Tuesday sees Germany travel to Slovenia, while Norway host Austria at the same time [18:00].

So far, eight teams have qualified for the World Cup.

Brazil were the first team to earn a place at the finals when they were awarded the right to host the tournament in 2024.

Since then, the 2007 runners-up have been joined by Australia, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and the Phillippines - who all secured qualification through the Women's Asia Cup.

New Zealand also sealed a place at the 2027 finals after an extremely dominant Oceania qualifying campaign.