The World Cup European play-off draw takes place at FIFA's Zurich headquarters today at 1300BST. Here, Press Association Sport looks at how the draw will unfold and what it means.

What is the point of the play-offs?

The two-legged ties will determine the four sides who will join Europe's nine group winners - France, Portugal, Germany, Serbia, Poland, England, Spain, Belgium and Iceland - at Russia 2018. The eight best second-placed teams (Slovakia missed out despite finishing runners-up to England in Group F) will battle for the four remaining qualifying spots. Joining Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the draw are: Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Greece and Croatia.

How will the draw work?

The eight qualified teams have been divided into two pots based on the world rankings, announced by FIFA on Monday. Based on the rankings, Switzerland (11th), Italy (15th), Croatia (18th) and Denmark (19th) will be in pot one and will play one of the four teams in pot two. The second pot will contain Northern Ireland (23rd), Sweden (25th), Republic of Ireland (26th) and Greece (47th), so Northern Ireland and the Republic cannot play each other. Likewise they cannot play Sweden or Greece.

 

When will the matches be played?

Home and away fixtures will be played between November 9 and November 15. The order of fixtures will be determined by the draw. Once one ball has been taken from pot one and another from pot two, they will be placed in a central pot, mixed and then drawn one by one. The first ball drawn will host the first leg between November 9 and 11. The return leg takes place between November 12 and 14.

Who goes to Russia?

The winner is decided on aggregate, so the scorer of the most goals advances to theWorld Cup finals. In event of a draw on aggregate, away goals apply. If there is still no deciding factor at the end of normal time, then the tie will go to extra time (two periods of 15 minutes), with the away goals rule still applicable. If there is still no winner, then the tie will go to a penalty shootout.

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