By next Tuesday, all 48 spots in the 2026 World Cup \u2013 the largest edition in tournament history \u2013 will be filled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Until then, there’s a lot of important soccer happening around the world \u2013 including a full slate of games on Thursday to see who’ll be advancing in World Cup qualifying. \u00a0We’re recapping all the day’s action.<\/p>\n
It’s inexplicable that a country with such a rich soccer heritage and which has won four<\/i> World Cup titles has not reached soccer’s biggest stage since 2014. Surely Italy won’t miss yet another tournament, right?<\/p>\n
Well, the Azzurri<\/i> took a step in the right direction by beating Northern Ireland in Bergamo. Sandro Tonali broke the deadlock with a half-volley early in the second half for Italy at home in Bergamo and then set up another goal for Moise Kean.<\/p>\n
They will now have to travel to Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina for a spot in the World Cup \u2013 where they’ll join Group B (co-hosts Canada, Qatar, Switzerland).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A hat trick by Viktor Gy\u00f6keres saw Sweden handle Ukraine and take another step closer towards the World Cup. The Swedes will next face Poland, who defeated Albania. The team that wins this playoff will join the Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia in Group F at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Gy\u00f6keres took center stage as the Arsenal playmaker shined despite having not scored for his country since 2024. Ukraine, who had a consolation goal by Matviy Ponomarenko.<\/p>\n
Poland had to rally past the Albanians, who took an initial lead by Arber Hoxha in the first half. But Poland equalized after 37-year-old Robert Lewandowski scored a crucial header, followed by Piotr Zielinski\u2019s goal that put Poland in front. The win also kept Lewandowski’s (who plays at Barcelona) hopes of playing at a third World Cup.<\/p>\n
We’re closer to getting the full picture of who will join the USA’s World Cup group.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid’s Arda G\u00fcler set up Ferdi Kadioglu’s goal as T\u00fcrkiye took down Romania to give them another step toward advancing to the World Cup. T\u00fcrkiye will next take on Kosovo, who outlasted Slovakia in a seven-goal thriller.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The winner of the T\u00fcrkiye-Kosovo match on Tuesday will join the USA, Paraguay and Australia in Group D. Those matches will be played in Vancouver (vs. Australia), Santa Clara, Calif. (vs. Paraguay) and Los Angeles (vs. the USA).<\/p>\n
Romania\u2019s elimination means that 80-year-old Mircea Lucescu won\u2019t get a chance to coach at the World Cup for the first time. Lucescu captained Romania at the 1970 World Cup. He previously coached T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n
Nicolae Stanciu hit the post in the second half in Istanbul, but Romania couldn’t muster the equalizer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We knew it would be a tough match. Lucescu knows us well and prepared accordingly,” T\u00fcrkiye captain Hakan \u00c7alhano\u011flu said. “In the first half, we could have made better runs in behind. In the second half, Ferdi scored with a ball in behind and it became 1-0. From then, it was ours.”<\/p>\n
As for Kosovo, the team is one game away from its first-ever World Cup after twice recovering from a goal down to upset Slovakia 4-3.<\/p>\n
– <\/strong>Countdown of the Top 100 Moments in World Cup History<\/u><\/strong> Denmark had no trouble with North Macedonia, putting up four goals against North Macedonia. Who will they face next: will it be Czechia or Ireland?\u00a0<\/p>\n Gustav Isaksen scored twice in two minutes in Denmark\u2019s 4-0 win. Whoever emerges from this patch will join co-hosts Mexico, South Africa and South Korea in Group A.\u00a0<\/p>\n The winner of the Congo vs. New Caledonia\/Jamaica match will join Portugal, Uzbekistan and Colombia in Group K. Matches will be played in Houston (vs. Portugal), Guadalajara (vs. Colombia) and Atlanta (vs. Uzbekistan.)<\/p>\n The winner of the Iraq vs. Bolivia\/Suriname match will join France, Senegal and Norway in Group I. Those matches will be played in Foxborough, Mass. (vs. Norway), Philadelphia (vs. France) and Toronto (vs. Senegal).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY By next Tuesday, all 48 spots in the 2026 World Cup \u2013 the largest edition in tournament history \u2013 will be filled.\u00a0 Until then, there’s a lot of important soccer happening around the world \u2013 including a full slate of games on Thursday to see who’ll be advancing in World Cup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– <\/strong>2026 World Cup Groups: Full Results From Draw<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n