Qualifying Completed. of The lineup is complete.
Countdown to the largest scale in history world cup The 48-team tournament in North America is a veritable mishmash of stars and unknown upstarts.
Here’s what we learned from a qualification campaign that lasted two and a half years and had 2,527 goals. Finished On Tuesday, six countries secured the final spots in soccer’s biggest event.
You can qualify for the World Cup even if you don’t win the qualifying match.
Sweden Looks like you’ve accomplished the impossible.
Some may wonder how a team that doesn’t win in its qualifying group can qualify for the World Cup.
The answer lies in the peculiarities of European governing body UEFA’s qualification process.
Sweden finished last in the group stage with two draws and four defeats, but were one of the countries given a second chance to qualify for the World Cup due to their previous performance in the Nations League in the 2024-25 season. The Swedes topped their group in League C, where they faced Azerbaijan, Slovakia and Estonia, ultimately qualifying for the World Cup play-offs.
There they defeated Ukraine 3-1 in the semifinals on Thursday. Poland 3-2 in Tuesday’s winner-take-all game.
Will Sweden qualify for the World Cup? Probably not, but they won’t care.
The four-time champion won’t be there… again.
The same thing happened again in Italy.
One of the world’s greatest soccer powers, having won the World Cup four times, somehow missed out on qualifying for the biggest World Cup in history. 16 teams from Europe will participate, but Italy will not be among them.
Recent failures after a penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina have sparked fresh introspection towards the national sport. Of course, we’ve been here before, after the Azzurri lost in the play-offs and missed out on the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.
Player poor times? Bad governance? choose the wrong one coach?Rotten luck? There are many reasons cited for Italy’s poor performance in soccer, culminating in the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper. “Third Apocalypse”
Although it’s not Italy, we have an Italian coach.
Several Italian coaches are scheduled to participate in the World Cup with their adopted countries.
Coach Vincenzo Montella guided Turkey to victory over Kosovo in the play-off final, adding to their World Cup berth and a place in the quarter-finals of the 2024 European Championship.
Fabio Cannavaro I was hired by Uzbekistan in October last year.after the Central Asian country qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Cannavaro captained Italy in 2006, the last time the Azzurri won a World Cup final.
Carlo Ancelotti appointed as Brazil national team manager Last May, a few weeks before the Italian position became vacant. Luciano Spalletti fired. Renowned manager Claudio Ranieri resigns I went to Gennaro Gattuso.another key player on the team that won the 2006 title.
Italy’s latest failure means Gianni Infantino, one of Italy’s most famous fans, has yet to appear in a World Cup since becoming president of tournament organizer FIFA in 2016. Infantino was born in Switzerland to Italian parents.
Iran heads to the US
Instead of watching Italy’s match in Bosnia on Tuesday, Infantino’s private jet landed in the Turkish coastal resort of Antalya. Being with Iranian players and officials.
it was them First face-to-face meeting FIFA leaders were there to watch Costa Rica’s 5-0 rout since the US and Israeli bombing of Iran began on February 28th.
Getting the Iranian delegation safely and diplomatically into the United States in June and playing the three group stage matches as scheduled will likely be FIFA’s biggest pre-World Cup challenge.
FIFA and Infantino have made it clear that Iran intends to play matches in Los Angeles and Seattle as scheduled.
The Iranian team also wants to participate in the World Cup, but Iranian national authorities demanded that the game be moved to Mexico.
Iran is currently scheduled to participate in the World Cup even though the domestic league in which most teams play has been suspended due to the war.
Four rookies stand on soccer’s biggest stage
Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde, Curacao: Welcome to the World Cup.
As the tournament expands, it inevitably opens the door to some of the freshest faces in football, and this year four of them are taking part, each with a special story to tell.
CuracaoFor example, this small Caribbean island nation is home to approximately 156,000 people, making it the least populated country to ever qualify. Third on the list is cape verdean archipelago of volcanic islands off the west coast of Africa.
In addition to debut players, Congoan African country hit by conflict in its mineral-rich eastern region. They returned to the World Cup 52 years after their last and only appearance, when they were called Zaire.
Visa for visiting fans
U.S. State Department employees likely felt their workload increase Tuesday night.
Just 10 weeks before the start of the World Cup, fans of six newly qualified national teams, including Iraq, Turkey and Congo, are expected to apply for visas to enter the United States. They were promised expedited service by US President Donald Trump. It is known as “FIFA Pass”. Those with World Cup tickets will receive priority reservations.
Six national football federations, which also include Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic and Sweden, are currently allocated thousands of tickets by FIFA to each World Cup match. These are typically distributed to: especially loyal fans A person who participates in all or most of the qualifying matches.
Iraq and Congo qualified on Tuesday with less complicated wins over Bolivia and Jamaica. Issuance of visit visa.
However, the Congo long list of African countries Its citizens will be required to submit a visa deposit of up to $15,000 to prevent overstaying in the United States. Fans from Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia are also among those who must submit visa deposits to watch their teams in the United States.
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