World Cup complete as Costa Rica book place after playoff win

Joel Campbell’s early goal sent Costa Rica to the World Cup for a third successive tournament as they edged past 10-man New Zealand 1-0 in their intercontinental playoff on Tuesday and secured the last place at the finals in Qatar.

The former Arsenal striker scored after three minutes for Costa Rica as he squeezed between two defenders to touch home a square pass from Jewison Bennette with the New Zealand defence slow to react.

But New Zealand will feel hard done by after having an equaliser chalked off by VAR for a foul in the build-up to Chris Wood putting the ball in the back of the net in the 39th minute.

The playoff between the fourth-placed team in the CONCACAF region and the Oceania confederation winner, at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, brought to an end the qualifying campaign for the 2022 finals in Qatar, which run from Nov. 21-Dec. 18.

Costa Rica qualified for a sixth World Cup in total and will compete in Group E at the finals against Germany, Japan and Spain.

Completed 2022 World Cup groups:

The following are the groups for the 2022 FIFA World Cup after the last of the 32 teams qualified for the tournament which will be held in Qatar in November and December.

Group A

Qatar (hosts)

Ecuador

Senegal

Netherlands

Group B

England

Iran

United States

Wales

Group C

Argentina

Saudi Arabia

Mexico

Poland

Group D

France

Australia

Denmark

Tunisia

Group E

Spain

Costa Rica

Germany

Japan

Group F

Belgium

Canada

Morocco

Croatia

Group G

Brazil

Serbia

Switzerland

Cameroon

Group H

Portugal

Ghana

Uruguay

South Korea