{"id":488964,"date":"2024-12-13T08:17:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T12:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=488964"},"modified":"2024-12-13T08:17:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T12:17:30","slug":"2026-world-cup-qualifiers-put-germany-or-italy-vs-haalands-norway","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/2026-world-cup-qualifiers-put-germany-or-italy-vs-haalands-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup qualifiers put Germany or Italy vs Haaland&#8217;s Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The draw for UEFA member nations&#8217; qualification groups for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was held in Zurich, introducing a new format due to the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams. Sixteen teams from UEFA will qualify for the competition hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most interesting encounters that could happen is in group I, where the loser of the Nation&#8217;s league tie between Italy and Germany will face Norway with Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n<p>England could be very happy with the draw, as the Three Lions will face easy competition in the face of Serbia, Albania, Lithuania and Andorra.<\/p>\n<p>The qualification structure includes 12 groups, split between five-team and four-team groups, with some spots dependent on the results of upcoming Nations League play-offs. Here are the groups in full:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The draw for World Cup 2026 qualifiers.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WorldCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#WorldCup<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f2SD0tZcGJ\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/f2SD0tZcGJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pete O&#8217;Rourke (@SportsPeteO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsPeteO\/status\/1867542668555038793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 13, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Group A<br \/>\nGermany v Italy (winner)<br \/>\nSlovakia<br \/>\nNorthern Ireland<br \/>\nLuxembourg<\/li>\n<li>Group B<br \/>\nSwitzerland<br \/>\nSweden<br \/>\nSlovenia<br \/>\nKosovo<\/li>\n<li>Group C<br \/>\nPortugal v Denmark (loser)<br \/>\nGreece<br \/>\nScotland<br \/>\nBelarus<\/li>\n<li>Group D<br \/>\nFrance v Croatia (winner)<br \/>\nUkraine<br \/>\nIceland<br \/>\nAzerbaijan<\/li>\n<li>Group E<br \/>\nSpain v Netherlands (winner)<br \/>\nT\u00fcrkiye<br \/>\nGeorgia<br \/>\nBulgaria<\/li>\n<li>Group F<br \/>\nPortugal v Denmark (winner)<br \/>\nHungary<br \/>\nRepublic of Ireland<br \/>\nArmenia<\/li>\n<li>Group G<br \/>\nSpain v Netherlands (loser)<br \/>\nPoland<br \/>\nFinland<br \/>\nLithuania<br \/>\nMalta<\/li>\n<li>Group H<br \/>\nAustria<br \/>\nRomania<br \/>\nBosnia and Herzegovina<br \/>\nCyprus<br \/>\nSan Marino<\/li>\n<li>Group I<br \/>\nGermany v Italy (loser)<br \/>\nNorway<br \/>\nIsrael<br \/>\nEstonia<br \/>\nMoldova<\/li>\n<li>Group J<br \/>\nBelgium<br \/>\nWales<br \/>\nNorth Macedonia<br \/>\nKazakhstan<br \/>\nLiechtenstein<\/li>\n<li>Group K<br \/>\nEngland<br \/>\nSerbia<br \/>\nAlbania<br \/>\nLatvia<br \/>\nAndorra<\/li>\n<li>Group L<br \/>\nFrance v Croatia (loser)<br \/>\nCzechia<br \/>\nMontenegro<br \/>\nFaroe Islands<br \/>\nGibraltar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nations League play-offs will determine the &#8220;winner&#8221; and &#8220;loser&#8221; participants in specific groups. Qualification begins in March 2025 for five-team groups, while four-team groups will start in September 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The draw for UEFA member nations&#8217; qualification groups for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was held in Zurich, introducing a new format due [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":488965,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17518],"news_category":[14236,14235,16715],"gn_keywords":[17897],"acf":{"announce":"England drawn into easy group at first sight against Serbia, Albania, Lithuania and Andorra","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/488964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/488964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488966,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/488964\/revisions\/488966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488964"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=488964"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=488964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}