2026 European World Cup Qualifying Draw - Details in thread.

TheGame

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Format

The format for European qualifying has changed, with more groups – and smaller ones than before.
There will be 12 World Cup qualifying groups. Six will have four teams and six will have five teams.
Teams will play each other home and away as usual.
The top team from each group qualifies automatically for the World Cup, with the runners-up going into the play-offs with four Nations League teams.
Four of the 16 play-off teams will qualify for the tournament.

The four teams who win the Nations League quarter-finals in March must each go into one of the four-team World Cup qualifying groups (Groups A-F).
That is because the Nations League finals are played in June, leaving less room in the calendar for World Cup qualifiers.
Because this draw takes place before those games, the quarter-finalists will be drawn as placeholders. For example, the winner of France v Croatia will go in one group, with the loser going in another.
A maximum of one losing Nations League quarter-finalist or one Nations League promotion-relegation play-off team can go in one group.
Scotland and the Republic of Ireland are among the 16 teams in those play-offs - so are more than likely to end in a four-team group.
England are likely to be in a five-team group.
The bottom six seeded teams will automatically go into Groups G-L.

Live stream here: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments...26/articles/uefa-preliminary-draw-live-stream
 
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I remember the days when international football was so simple!
 
The dark horses being San Marino after their recent triumphs
 
Few of those top 2 seeds aren't all that.

A Good draw for Ireland/Wales/Scotland would be.

Austria
Slovakia
Faroe Islands
Malta
 
Even by Fifa standards this is ridiculous, don't even know who half the top seeds are.
 
Scotland hoping it's Denmark rather than Portugal.
 
Albania and Serbia having a nice tea party again in England's group....
 
These groups are fecking awful. To be expected with so many teams qualifying now for the competition.
 
Not a bad group for Ireland.

Still no idea how qualification works outside the top team in each group.
 
TheGame said:
It’s actually competitive with one team only going through automatically.
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The runner up of all 12 groups go to the playoffs along with the best 4 NL teams. There's absolutely no way any of the big nations are slipping up here as they have TWO safety blankets.
 
so if we lose to France in NL, we play Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Montenegro and Czech Rep.

why the feck would we want to win that game now? :lol:

my god, those names...
 
PoTMS said:
The runner up of all 12 groups go to the playoffs along with the best 4 NL teams. There's absolutely no way any of the big nations are slipping up here as they have TWO safety blankets.
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It’s more for the 1st place. To be fair, most of the time it was play offs for 2nd so unless there was a general upset, the top teams always went through. But yeah with the increased numbers, they have more chance but also gives a chance for some of the other teams to hopefully get close to qualifying. Depends on quality of play offs as well.
 
PoTMS said:
The runner up of all 12 groups go to the playoffs along with the best 4 NL teams. There's absolutely no way any of the big nations are slipping up here as they have TWO safety blankets.
Click to expand...

Are the playoffs seeded?

Or did they abandon that after that one time they rigged it so France could get through?
 
Bole Top said:
so if we lose to France in NL, we play Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Montenegro and Czech Rep.

why the feck would we want to win that game now? :lol:

my god, those names...
Click to expand...

Any system where losing seems the better option doesn't make sense.

Although that could be a fun game though if both sides decide they want to lose.
 
Bole Top said:
so if we lose to France in NL, we play Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Montenegro and Czech Rep.

why the feck would we want to win that game now? :lol:

my god, those names...
Click to expand...
Knowing us; we will beat France and lose vs Spain next game. And feckup World cup qual with that.
 
If we get Denmark then it's definitely possible to win the group.
 
Mockery of qualification and a mockery of a world cup.

And yes, we have a good excuse to lose to France, not that we dont lose to them 9 times of 10 anyway. :lol:

Serbia and Albania in the same group, feisty.
 
Madness that Serbia and Albania are paired despite what is going on in Kosovo.
 
All the groups look pretty boring.

Are Norway good? Maybe they can compete against the loser of Germany/Italy.

Going by the Euros, Group E may be the most interesting group:

Group E: Spain/Netherlands (winner), Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria
 
saivet said:
All the groups look pretty boring.

Are Norway good? Maybe they can compete against the loser of Germany/Italy.

Going by the Euros, Group E may be the most interesting group:

Group E: Spain/Netherlands (winner), Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria
Click to expand...

We tend to brick it the moment we get to anything like a decisive match.

I was miffed for a second, thinking "why tf are we in a group with both Germany and Italy?!??"
 
TheGame said:
From the description it’s only 4 of the play offs teams going through so that might be interesting depending on the draw.
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Depends on the paths really. Last time Italy/Portugal would've met in one of the play offs but Italy messed up against North Macedonia.
 
Pretty bummed we (Serbia) have to play Albania. I would love to see us beat them but no good thing is going to come out of these games. My country will get a bad rep again, and probably deservedly so. I can see FIFA punishing us with -3 points again because fans can't behave.
 
DutchSerb said:
Pretty bummed we (Serbia) have to play Albania. I would love to see us beat them but no good thing is going to come out of these games. My country will get a bad rep again, and probably deservedly so. I can see FIFA punishing us with -3 points again because fans can't behave.
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There will be max security around those games.
I was on THAT game against you 1999 in Zagreb (damn, i am old). Ratio cops- fans was 1:1:lol:. Same thing will be in these two games.

Damn, that was 25 years ago. Now i am depressed.
 
I am so thrilled to have England in our group for once.
A little childhood dream of mine.
I hope that you will enjoy your visit to Latvia.
Cheers!
 
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