World Cup 2026 European Qualifiers: What hope for the 'little pepper'?

While the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in other regions have reached a tense stage, the European region has just begun to play matches between average teams.

Center back Rrahmani - Kosovo captain - is also a mainstay of Napoli Club - Photo: REUTERS

The format is too complicated.

This is because the UEFA Nations League is still ongoing. Portugal, Croatia, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark are the teams that have advanced to the quarter-finals. Therefore, they will not play in this round of World Cup qualifiers.

England and Belgium are the two rare giants that will start the 2026 World Cup qualifiers from the end of March. The rest are just mid-table teams and below.

FIFA's expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams has made qualifying rounds around the world more exciting, with Europe no exception, increasing its World Cup spots from 13 to 16.

With a total of 54 teams (excluding Russia, which is banned), Europe has long been considered the most competitive qualifying region. UEFA decided to split the groups in this year's qualifying format, increasing from 10 to 12.

There are 6 groups of 4 teams and 6 groups of 5 teams. The 12 group winners will qualify directly, while the 12 second-placed teams and the 4 teams with good results in the UEFA Nations League will participate in the play-off round to compete for the remaining 4 tickets.

The format is so complicated that the groups are still not fully determined. Group A, for example, has only three teams: Slovakia, Northern Ireland and Luxembourg. The final team will be the winner of the Germany-Italy match in the UEFA Nations League. The loser of that match will be in a group of five teams: Norway, Israel, Estonia and Moldova.

More hope for the "pepper seeds"

It would take a lot of ink to explain the complex format of the European World Cup qualifiers. But for example, fans can imagine such "easy" groups.

If Denmark lose to Portugal (in the UEFA Nations League), they will be drawn in Group C with Greece, Scotland and Belarus. Greece and Scotland are not strong teams, and Belarus is always considered a weak team. However, in recent friendlies against relatively good Asian teams such as Jordan, Bahrain and India, Belarus has won all.

On the other hand, if Denmark wins, they will be drawn in a group with Hungary, Ireland and Armenia. Although Armenia is considered a weak team, in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, they beat Wales, drew with Türkiye, lost to Croatia by a narrow margin and competed until the last minute.

With only Denmark, Hungary and Ireland as opponents in the group, Armenia have every right to hope for second place.

With the group split, many of Europe's mid-table sides suddenly had hope. Kosovo, who had never been to a Euro or World Cup, were in a group with Switzerland, Sweden and Slovenia. Don't underestimate Kosovo, as they have four or five familiar faces in European football.

Let's wait and see what surprises the "little guys" of Europe will create in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

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HUY DANG