{"id":14528,"date":"2025-11-20T12:50:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/iraq-will-play-bolivia-or-suriname-in-a-one-game-playoff-for-a-spot-in-the-2026-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T12:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:50:31","slug":"iraq-will-play-bolivia-or-suriname-in-a-one-game-playoff-for-a-spot-in-the-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/iraq-will-play-bolivia-or-suriname-in-a-one-game-playoff-for-a-spot-in-the-2026-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq will play Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff for a spot in the 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>ZURICH (AP) \u2014 Iraq must beat Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff next March to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq was seeded in a six-nation draw for the intercontinental playoff at FIFA headquarters on Thursday, making two teams eligible for the 48-nation tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Congo is seeded in the other intercontinental play-off spot and will face the winner of the single-game semi-final between New Caledonia and Jamaica.<\/p>\n<p>Another draw for March&#8217;s European playoff spots took place minutes later at FIFA, with 16 teams competing for four World Cup spots, including four-time champions Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Six intercontinental playoff matches will be held from March 23 to 31 at stadiums in Guadalajara and Monterrey, Mexico, with four World Cup matches each to be held next June.<\/p>\n<p>A total of six teams will advance from two sets of playoffs in March, completing the initial 48-nation lineup. <\/p>\n<p>The remaining 42 teams have been finalized this week after qualifying groups and playoff games were completed across four continents.<\/p>\n<p>The World Cup draw will be held on December 5th at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. There, six unconfirmed playoff spots will be drawn as placeholders, and the bottom-place teams will be taken out of the pot in the seeding lottery.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq&#8217;s penalty in the 17th minute of stoppage time against the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday propelled Graham Arnold&#8217;s side into the world play-offs. Iraq won 2-1 in Basra, securing a 3-2 victory in their second match of the Asian playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq&#8217;s only appearance at the World Cup was in 1986, when Arnold coached his native Australia to the last 16 of the 2022 tournament in Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>New Caledonia are ranked 149th among FIFA&#8217;s 211 member countries, making them the last team in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>New Caledonia defeated Tahiti 3-0 in March, effectively making the play-offs, but lost to New Zealand in the Oceania qualifying final. Johan Sidaner&#8217;s side have played just one game since defeating Gibraltar in a friendly last month.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP Soccer: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/world-cup-qualifying-playoffs-draw-italy-03249ed98295195b59af8c43c3a0761c\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ZURICH (AP) \u2014 Iraq must beat Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff next March to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Iraq was seeded in a six-nation draw for the intercontinental playoff at FIFA headquarters on Thursday, making two teams eligible for the 48-nation tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Congo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iraq will play Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff for a spot in the 2026 World Cup - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/iraq-will-play-bolivia-or-suriname-in-a-one-game-playoff-for-a-spot-in-the-2026-world-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iraq will play Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff for a spot in the 2026 World Cup - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ZURICH (AP) \u2014 Iraq must beat Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff next March to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. 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