Australia has officially booked its place in the 2026 World Cup finals after a 2-1 away win over Saudi Arabia in the final round of the third Asian qualifiers.
Abdulrahman Al-Oboud broke the deadlock at King Abdullah Sports City and gave Saudi Arabia hope of qualification with an early goal in the 19th minute.
However, that could not happen when Conor Metcalfe and Mitchell Duke took turns scoring to help Australia successfully reverse the situation.
This victory helps Coach Tony Popovic's team officially close the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with a ticket to North America.
After 10 matches, the Australian team won 19 points, ranked second in Group C of the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia.
Thus, Australia became the last team from Asia to directly qualify for the biggest football festival on the planet next year.
Previously, five other teams from the region had won tickets, including Iran, Uzbekistan (Group A), South Korea, Jordan (Group B) and Japan (Group C).
This is also the 6th consecutive time that Australia has qualified for the World Cup and the 7th final round in the team's history.
In the previous 6 World Cups, Australia's best achievement was reaching the round of 16 in 2026 and 2022.
Thus, the 2026 World Cup finals have determined 11 participating teams. The teams include the US, Mexico, Canada (co-hosts), Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan and Australia (Asia), Argentina (South America) and New Zealand (Oceania).
2.5 remaining World Cup spots for Asia?
The six teams that have officially represented Asia in the 2026 World Cup finals have been determined after the third qualifying round. The remaining 2.5 spots will be determined in the fourth qualifying round.
The six teams participating in the fourth qualifying round in Asia include UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
In the fourth qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia (from October 8 to 14), 6 teams will be drawn on July 17, divided into 2 groups of 3 teams each. Each group will compete in a round-robin at a centralized location.
The top teams of the two groups will win the remaining two official tickets from the Asian region to the final round.
The fourth qualifying round matches are scheduled to take place at a centralised venue, which will be confirmed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in due course. The draw for the group stage will take place on July 17 in Japan.
The two second-placed teams in each group will play a play-off, with the winner advancing to the intercontinental play-off round.
Here, the Asian play-off winners will face opponents from Africa, South America, Oceania and North Central America-Caribbean (2 teams), competing to win the last 2 tickets to the 2026 World Cup finals.
European Qualifiers
The 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Europe are taking place with exciting matches involving the "big guys."
In Group G, the Netherlands played brilliantly to win a "destructive" 8-0 victory over weak opponent Malta, thanks to goals from Memphis Depay (double), Virgil van Dijk, Xavi Simons, Donyell Malen (double), Noa Lang and Micky van de Ven.
This victory helped the "Orange Storm" rise to 2nd place in Group G with 6 points, behind Finland (7 points). However, the Netherlands played one less match.
Notably, with a brace in this match, Depay equaled the all-time scoring record for the Dutch national team of legend Robin van Persie (50 goals).
Previously, Depay also reached the milestone of 100 appearances for the Netherlands national team. He ranked behind famous former players such as Edwin van der Sar (130 appearances), Frank de Boer (112), Rafael van der Vaart (109), Daley Blind (108), Giovanni van Bronckhorst (106), Dirk Kuyt (104), Robin van Persie (102) and Arjen Robben (101).
In Group H, Austria and Romania also won to compete with Bosnia and Herzegovina in the race for World Cup tickets.
Austria easily defeated San Marino 4-0, while Romania defeated Cyprus 2-0. Both teams are now on 6 points and 3 points behind the leader Bosnia and Herzegovina./.
Source: https://baodaknong.vn/xac-dinh-duoc-11-doi-tuyen-tham-du-vong-chung-ket-world-cup-2026-255580.html
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