The countries who prevailed on Friday morning (AEDT) were Turkey, Denmark, Poland, Kosovo and Sweden, eliminating Romania, North Macedonia, Albania, Slovakia and Ukraine, respectively.
Six nations will secure qualification when the play-offs conclude next week, joining the 42 other teams who have already confirmed their spots at the World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Four of those six will come from UEFA, and one of them – either Turkey or Kosovo – will land in Group D, alongside the Socceroos, Paraguay and the United States.
Turkey will be hot favourites to progress and reach the World Cup for the first time since 2002, but they needed a moment of absolute magic from Real Madrid star Arda Guler to squeeze past Romania with a 1-0 win in Istanbul.
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