Iraq team has a great chance to attend the 2026 World Cup but still fires coach

This morning, the Iraqi Football Federation announced the dismissal of coach Jesus Casas and his team, and thanked the Spanish coach for his contributions.

The decision to “change horses in midstream” puts the Iraqi team in trouble right before two key matches with South Korea and Jordan. These are the two teams ranked 1st and 2nd in Group B of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. However, the gap between Iraq and these two opponents is not too big. Therefore, if they win only 1 of the 2 matches, they will enter the Top 2 and get a direct ticket to the World Cup.

According to Arab media, the conflict between Casas and the Iraqi Football Federation has existed for a long time, when he firmly removed many of the team's veterans, and made many statements that did not please the officials. And after the team's results were not as expected, Mr. Casas was pushed out.

Iraq is only 1 point away from a direct ticket to the 2026 World Cup

From consistently achieving positive results to being in the Top 2 of Group C, Iraq has suddenly declined with 2 consecutive matches without a win. Especially these are 2 matches without a win against 2 much weaker opponents, Palestine and Kuwait.

Instead of winning 6 points, Iraq only got 1 point and they lost the advantage in the race to the finals. Before that, Iraq lost both matches in the Gulf Cup, causing them to go through the most thirsty period for victory in the past 4 years, in exchange for coach Casas having to leave the field.

But it must be admitted that the right to decide the ticket to the next round is still in the hands of the Iraqi team because they only need to win 1 of the remaining 2 matches to have a 99% chance of getting a direct ticket to the World Cup.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/doi-tuyen-iraq-nam-co-hoi-lon-du-world-cup-2026-van-sa-thai-hlv-post1733917.tpo