World Cup 2026 Qualifiers: Curacao Makes History

The autonomous island of Curacao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with an area of ​​444 km2 and a population of 156,000, has become the smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup.

N THE LAST EXCITING MATCHES

Curacao held out for a 0-0 draw in Jamaica, finishing the World Cup qualifying round at the top of Group B in the CONCACAF region. Ironically, Curacao made history on their home turf, while Haiti qualified for the World Cup in Curacao (Haiti did not play at home). Beating Nicaragua 2-0, Haiti topped Group C, returning to the World Cup for the first time since 1974. The remaining official World Cup spot in this region belonged to Panama - the team that overtook Suriname at the last minute to take the top spot in Group A. Suriname and Jamaica advanced to the global play-off round. This round had 6 teams (Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jamaica, Suriname, Bolivia, New Caledonia) competing for 2 wildcard tickets to the World Cup finals.

Curacao becomes the world's smallest country to qualify for the 2026 World Cup

PHOTO: AFP

In Europe, Scotland had to beat Denmark to qualify, and they took the lead twice. But Denmark, who needed only a draw to qualify, levelled the score twice. Scott McTominay opened the scoring for Scotland in the third minute with a fantastic bicycle kick. Denmark's equaliser came with the visitors down to 10 men and just nine minutes of normal time remaining. Hampden Park exploded as Scotland scored two more goals in stoppage time to seal a 4-2 win.

THE STRANGE STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD CUP 2026

Due to FIFA expanding the number of teams participating in the 2026 World Cup to 48 and having 3 host countries in this World Cup, the "quota" for the CONCACAF region to participate in the finals will increase to 6, or even 8 teams if Jamaica and Suriname are both successful in the qualifying stage.

play-off. Asia has 8 teams, Africa has 9 teams, and each region also has 1 more team to play in the play-off. Meanwhile, the South American region, which is very powerful in the world football map, only has 6 official spots and 1 play-off spot.

Europe has only 12 official spots - fewer than the number of European representatives (14) at the 1982 World Cup when the finals had 24 teams. And while the top 12 teams in Europe have already booked their tickets to the World Cup, there are still 16 teams from this region preparing to play-off against each other to compete for the remaining 4 European representative spots. The European play-off and global play-off schedule will be drawn today, November 20.

Apart from Italy having to play in the play-offs, the only significant surprise in the entire 2026 World Cup qualifying round was the defeat of two powerful African teams - Nigeria and Cameroon. They both lost to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the matches for the right to represent Africa in the global play-offs.

Curacao, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde are four new faces, appearing at the World Cup for the first time. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Suriname and New Caledonia will also be new faces on the World Cup stage, if they make it through the global play-offs. In Europe, Norway, Austria and Scotland will all return to the World Cup stage for the first time in 28 years.

42 TEAMS HAVE QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE 2026 WORLD CUP FINAL

- Europe (12): Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland.

- Africa (9): Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia.

- Asia (8): Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan.

- South America (6): Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Ecuador.

- CONCACAF (6): Canada (host), USA (host), Mexico (host), Curacao, Haiti, Panama.

- Oceania (1): New Zealand.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vong-loai-world-cup-2026-curacao-lam-nen-lich-su-185251119224302513.htm