The last 6 spots in the World Cup are up for grabs

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With less than 80 days til kickoff, it's time to determine the final entries for the World Cup this June and July in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

A total of 22 countries remain in the hunt for the six remaining spots in the expanded 48-team event. In Europe, 16 nations will battle for the continent's last four berths, while six teams from other parts of the world vie for the other two spots. These will all be decided in a bunch of mini single-elimination tournaments over the next six days, with matches taking place Thursday and Tuesday.

Though Canada is not involved, it still has a stake in these qualifying contests. One of them will determine who the Canadian team faces in its World Cup opener on June 12 in Toronto, and a total of three qualifiers will play a group-stage game in either Toronto or Vancouver.

So, let's take a look at both the European and intercontinental qualifying tournaments.

Europe

The 16 European hopefuls have been divided into four separate four-team brackets — or "paths," as they're called. In each path, the winners of the two matches on Thursday will square off for a World Cup berth on Tuesday.

Path A is the most interesting for a couple of reasons. It features four-time World Cup winner Italy, which is desperately trying to avoid becoming the first multi-time champion to miss the event three straight times. If the Italians win out, they'll face Canada on June 12 in Toronto, home of the largest community of Italian-Canadians in the country.

Italy is ranked 12th in the world and is favoured to win the path. But this same route led to