World Cup playoffs: No Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah or Italy? What's at stake?

Can you imagine a FIFA World Cup in Qatar without Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo or Egypt's Mohamed Salah? Or a tournament in which European champions Italy or African champions Senegal fail to qualify? Well the bad news for those mentioned, and fans across the globe, is that some of the game's headline acts will see their Qatar 2022 dreams extinguished in the coming days during the World Cup playoffs.

By the end of this international break, seven nations will have booked their place in this year's World Cup through the playoffs. Three more will be confirmed when the Intercontinental playoffs and the culmination of the European path involving Ukraine take place in June.

— World Cup playoffs on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games, replays (U.S.) — Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) — World Cup playoff schedule: UEFA | CAF

In Europe, some of the major nations, including Portugal and Italy, are walking a tightrope after failing to top their qualification groups. And in Africa, five head-to-head ties over two legs will see some of the continent's traditional powerhouse countries miss out.

It promises to be a tense and dramatic round of playoffs in Europe and Africa, so here's your guide as to how it will all play out.

In Europe, the 10 runners-up from the group stage, plus the two highest-placed teams in the 2021 Nations League who failed to achieve a top-two group finish (Austria and Czech Republic), have been drawn into three separate playoff paths.

Each path has four teams, with two one-legged semifinals feeding into a one-off final. The seeded team is at home in the semifinal and a draw has already taken place to decide who has home advantage in the final.

So there is no margin for error. It's one game, in both the semis and