The World Cup is expanded, and the joy is also multiplied across continents.

TPO - Putting aside the technical aspects, the fact that the 2026 World Cup has been expanded to 48 teams has truly brought happiness to many places around the world, as many countries are filled with joy for their tickets to the biggest football festival on the planet.

Norway players celebrate at Radhusplatsen, Oslo.

According to statistics from RTE2, the Irish TV channel that broadcast live the match between Ireland and Hungary in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the number of viewers reached 1,017,000 people, a record for the station.

In addition, there have been many clips recording the exciting scene when Republic of Ireland fans burst into joy, at Dublin Airport, subway stations or pubs, before Troy Parrott's winning goal 3-2, officially helping them win a ticket to the play-off round, extending their dream to the biggest football festival on the planet next year.

There, the Republic of Ireland can continue to make miracles, or stop, but the magical moment against Hungary will never be forgotten. It seemed that their journey to the 2026 World Cup would soon end after the loss to Armenia, but Parrott made history with two miraculous victories against Portugal and Hungary. That was enough to bring overwhelming happiness to the fans of the Republic of Ireland, a country that has missed the last 5 World Cups and also absent from the last 2 EUROs.

Troy Parrot celebrates his goal in front of a crowd of Republic of Ireland fans.

The 2026 World Cup also brought joy to Norway, a country that has not participated in the most prestigious tournament on the planet since 1998. After a 4-1 away win over Italy, thereby officially winning the ticket, Erling Haaland and his teammates were welcomed as national heroes.

They landed at Gardermoen Airport at 4pm on Monday (local time, November 17) and boarded buses to Radhusplatsen, where the Norwegian Football Association and the City of Oslo had prepared a huge celebration. Up to 50,000 people were present, with the players celebrating in front of the City Hall, which was lit up with the Norwegian flag.

Earlier, another celebration took place in the capital Kinshasa of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday night, after the country beat Nigeria on penalties in the African play-off final, thereby qualifying for the intercontinental play-off. Thousands of people poured into the streets, shouting, dancing, honking car horns and waving blue flags with a red cross and a yellow star.

The Democratic Republic of Congo team celebrates reaching the intercontinental play-off round.

Last month, the party lasted late into the night in Cape Verde, when the island nation, some 570 kilometers off the coast of West Africa, qualified for the World Cup for the first time. After defeating Eswatini in the final, the celebrations began inside the new national stadium. Afterwards, everyone headed back to the old national stadium in the middle of the capital to continue the fun, from the players to the country’s top artists and hordes of fans.

When the 2026 World Cup was expanded to 48 teams, FIFA was criticized, with accusations that the world 's most powerful football body was trying to commercialize the tournament to maximize profits. This is true, but the benefits of expanding the number of teams cannot be denied.

As you can see, there has been a lot of excitement and joy generated by the underdogs. Among the 34 teams that have qualified include newcomers like Uzbekistan, Jordan and Cape Verde, as well as long-time absentees like Norway, South Africa, Paraguay and New Zealand. There are also some countries that are getting close to qualifying, like Panama, Suriname and Curacao, who have never been to the World Cup and are ranked very low in the FIFA rankings.

Cape Verde fans excited about their ticket to the 2026 World Cup.

Perhaps at the 2026 World Cup, there will be mixed results when Brazil plays Cape Verde, England plays Jordan, or dull matches when Uzbekistan plays South Africa, Qatar plays New Zealand. But that is for the future, and who knows, miracles may happen again, like Morocco in 2022, Croatia in 2018 or Costa Rica in 2014.

"This is why we love football, because extraordinary things can happen… I love where I was born, and my family, this victory means so much to me," Ireland hero Parrott said in tears.

The World Cup should be about great stories, and it is happening, with lots of fairy tales, "carps leaping over the dragon gate" and millions of joys spreading across continents. In this respect, FIFA is right.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/world-cup-mo-rong-niem-vui-cung-nhan-len-gap-boi-o-khap-cac-luc-dia-post1797214.tpo