2026 World Cup Playoff Draw Explained: How does it works for Europe, Inter-continental play-off draw, format?.
Italy will play Northern Ireland in their 2026 World Cup play-off semi-final. The winner will then face either Wales or Bosnia & Herzegovina in the final.
The Republic of Ireland will travel to Czech Republic, and if they win, they will host either Denmark or North Macedonia in their final.
In the inter-confederation play-offs, Jamaica will face New Caledonia, and the winner will play DR Congo. Iraq will play whoever wins between Bolivia and Suriname.
The European play-offs have eight one-match semi-finals and four one-match finals. The four final winners will qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Teams are grouped into four paths. Each path has a semi-final and a final.
All semi-finals will be played on March 26, and all finals on March 31.
How did the European draw work?
Europe gets the most places at the World Cup, and the move from 32 to 48 teams increased their spots from 11 to 16.
Teams were split into groups for qualifying. All group winners qualified automatically.
The teams that finished second in their groups went into the play-offs, along with four extra teams from the Nations League.
The play-offs used seeding: top-ranked teams hosted lower-ranked teams in the semi-finals. Each play-off path has one team from each seeding pot. The two semi-final winners in each path then play in a final for a World Cup place.
Teams that lose their semi-finals will play a friendly against each other on the same day as the finals.
What about the inter-confederation play-offs?
Two World Cup spots are left for non-European teams. These will be decided by six teams: DR Congo, New Caledonia, Bolivia, Iraq, Jamaica and Suriname.
DR Congo and Iraq were seeded, so they skip straight to their path finals. The other four teams will play one-match semi-finals. The two winners will then face the seeded teams in the finals.
The winners of those two finals will take the last two World Cup places.
All these matches will be held in Mexico in March, with exact dates still to come.
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