In the European World Cup Qualification, the top 8 second place teams go into a showdown with another team?

Also how do they decide who they play?? Is it random or what?

As you know, there are 9 qualifying groups.
8 of the groups have 6 teams, with Group 9 having only five teams.

To determine which 8 second place teams advance to the playoffs, the results of matches against all the teams in their group EXCEPT THE SIXTH PLACE team are taken into account.
The eight teams with the most number of points get to continue on the road to South Africa via the playoffs.
If two or more teams have the same number of points, then goal difference decides.
The second tiebreaker is total goals scored, with away goals the third tiebreaker.
If still level then a drawing of lots will leave one unlucky team out of the picture. This is basically a lottery, where the teams concerned are placed in a bowl and one-by-one teams that are pulled out advance, with the last team remaining in the bowl out of the tournament.

Since Group 9 has only five teams, we know what the status of the second place team in that group is as far as points, goal difference, etc.
But since the other eight groups have a sixth team, and keeping in mind that the results against the sixth place team are not included in the equation, the second placed teams from groups 1-8 could not be known literally until every qualification match ends (October 14, 2009) because their status won't be known since the sixth place team will constantly be changing, thus having a bearing as to which team is in second place and whether their points/goal difference is good enough to qualify for the playoffs.

Once the eight second placed teams are known, they will be matched up in four playoff pairings via a blind draw, meaning no teams will be seeded or anything. First team out of the hat hosts the first leg against the second team pulled out of the hat, which hosts the second leg. Third team out host first leg against fourth team out; fifth plays sixth, and seventh plays eighth. Simple as that.

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