Iraq and Norway are set to face off in their opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Boston Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on FOX.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norway is making only its fourth World Cup appearance ever and its first of this century. They did not qualify for the past six tournaments, dating back to their last appearance in 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norway cruised through European qualifying with little stress, winning all eight of their group-stage matches, including two victories over traditional powerhouse Italy.<\/p>\n
Despite that dominance, they were placed in Pot 3 for the draw, positioning them as a leading candidate to land in a potential “Group of Death.” With the level of talent on this roster, it\u2019s difficult to view Norway as a mid-tier side, and they have emerged as a popular dark-horse pick for a deep tournament run.<\/p>\n
Norway heads into the tournament off a 3-1 win over Sweden and a 1-1 draw against Morocco in two recent friendlies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Iraq secured the 48th and final spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a 2-1 win over Bolivia in the intercontinental playoff on March 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iraq’s recent 1-1 draw against Spain in a June 4th friendly has left some optimistic about its tournament outlook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This marks Iraq\u2019s first World Cup appearance in 40 years and just the second in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s check out the odds for the Norway vs. Iraq Group I matchup at FanDuel Sportsbook as of June 16.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland is -235 to score in Norway’s opening World Cup match against Iraq (Photo by Stephen Nadler\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images).<\/span> <\/p>\n This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about <\/i>Sports Betting on FOX Sports<\/u><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n From FOX Sports Research:<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at some other bets for the match.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Iraq and Norway are set to face off in their opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Boston Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on FOX.\u00a0 Norway is making only its fourth World Cup appearance ever and its first of this century. They did not qualify […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4851","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\/4851","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=4851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}