Last Friday, 5 December 2025, brought us the draw for the largest World Cup in the competition's history. The 42 teams that have already qualified for the main draw know their groups and opponents. However, the final spots will be filled after the playoffs in March next year.
World Cup 2026 Groups
The draw is now complete, and even though we don’t know all the participants just yet, we know which group each playoff winner is in and what opponents they will face.
All teams know their schedules for the group stage matches, and so do fans who might need to set their alarms or prepare plenty of coffee to stay up late enough to watch their teams play.
Here’s what all the groups look like:
- Group A: Mexico, South Africa, Korea Republic, UEFA Playoff D Winner (DEN/MKD/CZE/IRL)
- Group B: Canada, UEFA Playoff A Winner (ITA/NRL/WAL/BIH), Qatar, Switzerland
- Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
- Group D: USA, Paraguay, Australia, UEFA Playoff C Winner (TUR/ROU/SVK/KOS)
- Group E: Germany, Curaçao, Côte D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ecuador
- Group F: Netherlands, Japan, UEFA Playoff B Winner (UKR/SWE/POL/ALB), Tunisia
- Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
- Group H: Spain, Cabo Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
- Group I: France, Senegal, FIFA Playoff 2 Winner (BOL/SUR/IRQ), Norway
- Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
- Group K: Portugal, FIFA Playoff 1 Winner (NCL/JAM/COD), Uzbekistan, Colombia
- Group L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama
An interesting fact about the draw is that we will see the replay of the England-Croatia match in the first round, just as in the first round of Euro 2021.
The 48-team format makes it less likely to have the famous “groups of death”, like the ones we had in the previous editions. Neutral football fans will maybe have only a few more matches that draw attention just by the teams’ names.
One of those matches is definitely the duel between Spain and Uruguay, and we can also expect the match between France and Norway to be a feast. Who doesn’t want to see two top goalscorers, Kylian Mbappe on one, and Erling Haaland on the other side, right?
Too Early to Talk About the Knockout Stage
While we already know what the fixtures look like for the knockout stage, in terms of who and where the winners of Group A will face (the C/E/F/H/I group third-placed team), it is too early to talk about all this.
However, we can expect some interesting matches from the start of this phase, like the road the reigning champions, Argentina, could have, should they win their group.
In the meantime, Spain remains a favourite to win the World Cup 2026, with the odds ranging from 5.0 to 6.0. Unibet has Spain at the odds of 6.0 to win the World Cup, so check it out:
Second favourite is England, looking at Tomas Tuchel to deliver what Gareth Southgate couldn’t in Qatar. The outright odds of England winning the World Cup at Betfred are 7.0.
Brazil, Argentina and France are all given similar chances of winning the tournament, and they all sit at the odds of 9.0 with bet365.
If you are a fan of betting on the World Cup, now may be your chance to snatch the outright odds you like.
