After a rocky beginning as Switzerland manager, Adam Chabukiani's next task has been unveiled by UEFA as the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifying Groups are announced.
The Swiss FA, in response to the Group 2 pot that Switzerland have been put in have outlines that they expect to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Switzerland will be facing the stern challenge of Portugal in the qualifying stages, with the Selecao the only national team ranked higher in the world rankings at 14th meanwhile Switzerland stand at 20th.
However in complete contrast to high-flyers Portugal, the Swiss will go onto face the worst European team in contention in the form of San Marino, who are usually the whipping boys in this competition as the national team only have five international wins in all their history, and hold the shameful overall goal difference of -695.
But despite San Marino's presence and the 8-0 victory Switzerland had over them in their last meeting, it is not all that easy for the Swiss.
Despite their low international ranking of 127th, Northern Ireland are tough opposition for Chabukiani, having only been denied a EURO 2020 place by a Play-Off defeat to Serbia. Before that they qualified for the EURO 2016 in France which they won one game in out of three. With the threats of Stuart Dallas and Ben Reeves, N. Ireland are a tough side in Group 2.
Finland hold the third highest-ranked place in Group 2 for the World Cup, and rightly so after an impressive Nations League performance last year. With impressive performances internationally and at club level with Celta Vigo, Finland will be relying on 26-year-old Joel Pohjanpalo to lift them into the World Cup next year. Switzerland will be Finland's first opponents in the qualifying stage.
Finally, Hungary, the 89th ranked team in the world are the last team to cover in Group 2. Despite arguably possessing a better footballing history internationally with the legends like Ferenc Puskas and in more recent times Balázs Dzsudzsák, they will be hoping for a sniff at more international glory when the World Cup starts in June 2022. The Eastern Europeans will be relying on star players Péter Gulácsi, Gábor Vida, Szabolcs Varga and Tamás Gahwagi to fire them to the Middle East next year.
In this case, the top team of the group will qualify for the World Cup in Qatar but results between the teams in the top five positions are used to sort teams into the Second Place Teams table.
Despite there being no 'Group of Death's' in this campaign, Group 7 (England, Faroe Islands, Romania, Scotland and Slovakia) and Group 9 (Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Moldova and Spain) seem to be the most balanced groups in the qualification stage in Europe.
In terms of media predictions, Portugal seem to be the front-runners for automatic qualification in Switzerland's group, with the Swiss being the next in line according to the bookies. San Marino are a definite no as N. Ireland, Finland and Hungary are set to battle it out to get somewhere near a qualification spot.
Unlucky on the Chelsea result, always a tough game! Internationally everything seems to be going swimmingly 
