All you need to know about the European play-offs

The draw takes place in Zurich at 1pm today. Here we look at how it will unfold and what it means.

What is the point of the play-offs?

The two-legged ties will determine the four sides to join Europe’s nine group winners – France, Portugal, Germany, Serbia, Poland, England, Spain, Belgium and Iceland – at Russia 2018.

The eight best second-placed teams will battle for the four remaining qualifying spots.

Joining Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the draw are Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Greece and Croatia. How will the draw work?

The eight qualified teams have been divided into two pots based on the world rankings, announced by Fifa yesterday. Based on the rankings, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Denmark will be in pot one and will play one of the four teams in pot two.

The second pot will contain Northern Ireland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Greece, so Northern Ireland and the Republic cannot play each other. What are Northern Ireland and the Republic’s play-off records?

The Republic have won three of eight play-off ties, but two of those wins have come at the last two attempts, against Estonia to go to Euro 2012 and Bosnia-Herzegovina to advance to Euro 2016.

Northern Ireland are new to the play-offs, having qualified automatically for last year’s European Championships. Who will be the team for Northern Ireland and the Republic to avoid?

Italy. The Azzurri are only in the play-offs because they had the misfortune of being in the same qualifying group as Spain.

They may be lower than Switzerland in Fifa’s rankings, but they will still be a formidable opponent. When will the matches be played?

Home and away fixtures will be played between November 9 and November 15.

The order of fixtures will be determined by the draw.

Once one ball has been taken from pot one and another from pot two, they will be placed in a central pot, mixed and then drawn one by one.

The first ball drawn will host the first leg between November 9 and 11, with the return leg taking place between November 12 and 14. Who goes to Russia?

The winner is decided on aggregate, so the scorer of the most goals advances to the World Cup finals.

In the event of a draw on aggregate, away goals apply.

If it is still a draw at the end of normal time, then the tie will go to extra time.

If there is still no winner, then the tie will go to a penalty shoot-out.