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Bike kicks and tears: here are the teams that have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
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Bike kicks and tears: here are the teams that have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

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A bicycle kick goal, last-minute thrillers, historic breakthroughs, smiles and tears: the final qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup delivered the full range of emotions, with several national teams securing their tickets for next year’s showpiece event.
As the November qualifiers come to a close, 14 additional teams have secured their places at the tournament, bringing the total number of qualified teams to 42.
Next year’s Men’s World Cup has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams for the first time. The remaining six qualifying teams will be determined through play-off matches in March.
The qualifying matches started worldwide in October 2023, with Japan being the first team to qualify.
The 42 qualifying nations, including Australia, will find out who their opponents will be during the 2026 World Cup final draw in Washington DC on Saturday, December 6 (AEDT).

Here’s what you need to know about the teams that qualified for the World Cup, and the teams that still have a chance.

Which new teams have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

Let’s start with the most surprising name: Curaçao.
The small Caribbean country, with a population of 156,000 and an area of ​​444 square kilometers, has made history as the smallest country to qualify for the World Cup. a 0-0 draw against Jamaica in Kingston on Wednesday (AEDT).
In addition to Curacao, Panama and Haiti, the other teams that qualified in the recent qualifiers are from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football.

During the matches, 11 European teams, including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland, secured their tickets to North America.

Credit: SBS

They join England, the only other European team to have qualified for the matches from November 14 to November 19.

One of the most iconic moments of the UEFA qualifiers came when Scotland defeated Denmark 4-2 on Wednesday morning (AEDT) to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1998. The highlights of the match included a spectacular bicycle kick goal from star midfielder Scott McTominay and a goal from halfway from Kenny McLean to seal the win.
Striker Lyndon Dykes, who grew up on Queensland’s Gold Coast, also played for Scotland and is likely to be at the World Cup.
Norway and Austria are the other teams we will see at the tournament for the first time in 28 years.
Norway defeated Italy 4-1, thanks to two goals from their famous striker Erling Haaland, who plays for Manchester City in the English Premier League.

Austria secured its place with a 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Which teams can still qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

This isn’t the end of the World Cup qualifying thrillers, with the last six places at the tournament to be decided in March.
Sixteen teams from Europe play for four places and six teams from the rest of the world play for two places.
Twelve of the European teams finished second in their groups and the remaining four teams finished third in their qualifying groups, but made the play-offs as they were among the top four ranked group winners of the UEFA Nations League.
The 16 teams in the European play-offs are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Kosovo, Poland, Ireland, Slovakia, Türkiye, Ukraine, Wales, Romania, Sweden, Northern Ireland and North Macedonia.

Two other qualifiers will come from the winners of an Interconfederation play-off, which will be played between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jamaica, Suriname, New Caledonia, Bolivia and Iraq – coached by Australian Graham Arnold.

Which big names are not at the World Cup?

While teams like Curacao, Uzbekistan and Cape Verde make their World Cup debuts, and others reemerge after several years, some big football names will miss the tournament.
Serbia, Greece and Hungary are the best-known European teams that have not qualified for next year’s World Cup.

Four-time World Cup winners Italy will have to qualify through the play-offs and are in danger of missing the tournament for a third time in a row after failing to reach Qatar 2022 and Russia 2018.

Chile, two-time winners of the Copa America, also failed to qualify for the tournament.
African giants Nigeria and Cameroon, who have qualified for the World Cup six and seven times respectively, will also not participate in the tournament.

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