World Cup 2026

[Winston Biscuit]

8 more teams added in, that's 42, which seems like a lot

42 + 4 x Euro playoffs = 46

Do we know what the permutations are for the last two spaces?

Those are for the Intercontinental play-off winners.

Draw is tomorrow

Iraq and DR Congo as the highest seeds move directly to the 2 "finals".

The semi finals will be between Jamaica, Bolivia. Suriname & New Caledonia.

it's a shame Brazil didn't continue their stumbling in the qualifiers. would have been amazing to see Brazil vs New Caledonia in the play offs

[stealthpapes]

any beefy tensions between these nations that could make games interesting?

The only one that jumps out to me is Bosnia & Kosovo, but I think they are unlikely to play each other.

The one tie that UEFA could have ruled out from being drawn but they've ended up in the same pot. Probably for the best.

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There's three constraints on the qualifying draws.

Prohibited clashes - Belarus–Ukraine, Gibraltar–Spain, Kosovo–Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo–Serbia, Armenia–Azerbaijan
Winter Venues - maximum of two from Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway in any one group
Excessive Travelling - no more than one from:
Azerbaijan (with Gibraltar, Iceland, Portugal)
Iceland (with Armenia, Cyprus)
Kazakhstan (with Andorra, England, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales)
in any one group.

There's a few other countries that could have appeared in these lists - Israel on the excessive travel and Belarus and Ukraine for winter venues, but they're all playing in neutral grounds this qualifying.

[Stranded]

Aren't there 4 finals? So it is just 4 sets of semi finals to be drawn with the winners playing off for one of the remaining slots?

As Sweden qualified via the Nations League - I believe they could become the first team to qualify for a World Cup without winning a game (if they win both ties on penalties).

Why can’t we just have a simple unseeded set of games? Sick of these organisations maximising the chances of qualification for the perceived big boys. No doubt we’ll find pot 1 teams will also get home advantage

Why should Northern Ireland have to face an Italy instead of a North Macedonia?

Not sure if serious but, because they didn't finish top 2 in their qualifying group? These pots are entirely on merit and have nothing to do with big boys

Quite - they are based on the last published World Rankings, so the teams who have performed best over recent times get to be seeded. Pot 4 sides are those who have barged their way in from the Nations League. So if Italy had finished 3rd, they would have still made the play-offs but would have been in Pot 4 and facing an away game to a relatively highly ranked side.

[Whore Jackie]

Watched the Scotland game from about 75 mins onwards. Fantastic end to the game, very pleased for them. Seemed to be one of those nights where you just have a feeling (as a neutral at least) that something would break for them and they'd do it. Incredible scenes, and some top quality goals too

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

[Steve_Upper_West]

Great to see Steve Clarke smiling for once.

Indeed... also one of our better 'recent' managers, pleased for him

[Winston Biscuit]

Watched the Scotland game from about 75 mins onwards. Fantastic end to the game, very pleased for them. Seemed to be one of those nights where you just have a feeling (as a neutral at least) that something would break for them and they'd do it. Incredible scenes, and some top quality goals too

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

[PieEater]

All 3 Scottish goals were good, as was the Danish second goal. Their first goal was a very dodgy penalty, is the penalty area the inside or outside of the line? It seemed to me Roberston was just touching the outside of the line and the attacker threw himself over his outstretched leg. If it's the inside of the line then VAR must have been guessing where the mid air contact was made.

The game changed after an equally dodgy second booking manufactured by McGinn, without that I think the Danes win it.

I wouldn't normal be cheering for the Scots, but I think they deserved it overall given the decisions.

[Sutekh]

Watched the Scotland game from about 75 mins onwards. Fantastic end to the game, very pleased for them. Seemed to be one of those nights where you just have a feeling (as a neutral at least) that something would break for them and they'd do it. Incredible scenes, and some top quality goals too

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

Qualifying for teams of England's ilk is rather pointless though - so shouldn't really be blamed for the "lack of excitement", of course the FA could employ another "brolly wally" to help restore the excitement to these games - if that's what you really want

[Winston Biscuit]

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

Qualifying for teams of England's ilk is rather pointless though - so shouldn't really be blamed for the "lack of excitement"

thats a fair point. qualification being in the balance is more fun and entertaining than smashing a group, even though the latter = a better team.

I guess its like the old 'going up via the plays offs is the best way to go up' mantra

[South Coast Royal]

Pleased to see Scotland go through and would like (however unlikely) to see Northern Ireland go through as well.
Don't care much if Wales make it and don't care at all about Ireland.

A very exciting game for the Scots last night and what a 90 minutes by John McGinn who was everywhere
I don't think they will do any good next Summer because of their defence but credit to Steve Clarke and his players for getting there.

[RG30]

For the European playoffs, teams with 1st/2nd seeds get the home advantage against the 3rd/4th place seeds respectively. For the 4 finals, this will be drawn tomorrow.

[Stranded]

Anyway I think we all agree that Curacao v Cape Verde at 1 in the morning, is going to be a must watch,

[Winston Biscuit]

come on the 'çao!

[LUX]

All 3 Scottish goals were good.

Lowlight for me was the Sky commentator saying, on at least six occasions, «  Scotland taking the High Road » when it was pumped forward.

Once was annoying.

[Clyde1998]

Watched the Scotland game from about 75 mins onwards. Fantastic end to the game, very pleased for them. Seemed to be one of those nights where you just have a feeling (as a neutral at least) that something would break for them and they'd do it. Incredible scenes, and some top quality goals too

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

I can absolutely assure you, watching Scotland isn't usually anywhere near that exciting.

[Winston Biscuit]

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

I can absolutely assure you, watching Scotland isn't usually anywhere near that exciting.

Too late, I am on board now. Sitting here in a kilt, playing the bagpipes and injecting heroin into my groin veins!

[Clyde1998]

I don't think they will do any good next Summer because of their defence but credit to Steve Clarke and his players for getting there.

Our defence has been shocking.

Can't imagine someone like Grant Hanley will be playing internationally after the World Cup (probably shouldn't've been featuring in this qualifying campaign tbh); I think Jack Hendry and Ryan Porteous are better than him (notwithstanding the latter's 'recklessness' issues), but neither are getting any game time (internationally).

[Clyde1998]

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

I can absolutely assure you, watching Scotland isn't usually anywhere near that exciting.

Too late, I am on board now. Sitting here in a kilt, playing the bagpipes and injecting heroin into my groin veins!

At least you're already attuned with the concept of getting your hopes up and getting them destroyed by a football team

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Watched the Scotland game from about 75 mins onwards. Fantastic end to the game, very pleased for them. Seemed to be one of those nights where you just have a feeling (as a neutral at least) that something would break for them and they'd do it. Incredible scenes, and some top quality goals too

Indeed. Can't think of another non-tournament international match watched as a neutral that I've enjoyed as much as last night. What a way to qualify.

was more excited watching Scotland last night than I have been watching England for a long time

Maybe because winning isn’t expected for Scotland?

[Silver Fox]

I don't think they will do any good next Summer because of their defence but credit to Steve Clarke and his players for getting there.

Our defence has been shocking.

Can't imagine someone like Grant Hanley will be playing internationally after the World Cup (probably shouldn't've been featuring in this qualifying campaign tbh); I think Jack Hendry and Ryan Porteous are better than him (notwithstanding the latter's 'recklessness' issues), but neither are getting any game time (internationally).

I was thrilled when Hanley got dropped on Tuesday, it was so Scotlandy for Souter to then get injured in the warmup and him getting back in. Having said that he was pretty good, much better than Saturday, although that's not saying a great deal