Palestine dreams of a World Cup qualification in tonight's match against Oman

Palestine, ranked 101st in the FIFA ranking, with a best rank of 73 in 2018, has never played a World Cup. The war devastated country has, however, a chance to reach for the first time a FIFA World Cup play-off if they manage to defeat Oman tonight, as part of the AFC World Cup qualifiers third round, Group B (19:15 BST, 20:15 CEST on Tuesday, June 10).

A victory would help them reach the fourth round in the qualification process, the furthest they've ever gone in the run for a World Cup. If they manage to reach it, they will join five other nations for a round-robin tournament where the best two will qualify for World Cup and the two second-placed teams will go through another round of play-offs.

In short, six teams fighting for three World Cup spots. Not bad chances at all, but first they need to beat Oman tonight, which is stronger (ranked 77th in FIFA's list), with one more point than Palestine in the Group. Oman beat Palestine 1-0 in November, but Palestine come from a two-win streak against Iraq, a last-minute comeback (2-1) and Kuwait (2-0).

It is impossible not to write about Palestine and football without feeling this is irrelevant compared to the decimation in Gaza, but a World Cup qualification would be historic for the country, a huge pride for a team that has not been allowed to play in their grounds since 2019, forced to play their home matches in other countries, usually Jordan, who last week confirmed their first ever World Cup qualification.