🔗 Share this article

Group A

The first match at the famous Azteca Stadium will mirror the first game from 2010, when South Africa tied 1-1 with Mexico. Mexico's knockout phase history at the global tournament features just a single win, achieved against Bulgaria when they previously hosted in 1986. The manager, Javier Aguirre, played as an attacker in that team and will be targeting a third last-eight appearance as hosts. The South African side, led by veteran Belgian manager Hugo Broos, secured their place for their initial World Cup since hosting, finishing above Nigeria and Benin despite seeing a win over Lesotho given against them for fielding an ineligible footballer.

This will represent South Korea's eleventh successive finals qualification. Icon Hong Myung-bo featured in four of those, and came in third place in the Golden Ball voting when South Korea made the last four in 2002. Hong is now their manager and led them unbeaten through a far from easy qualifying group. The final side in Group A will be the victor of a UEFA playoff featuring the Czech Republic, Denmark, North Macedonia, or the Republic of Ireland.

Pool B

Canada have made it for the global finals twice and, although Qatar 2022 yielded their first finals goal, it did not deliver their first finals point. Jesse Marsch is the head coach of arguably the best squad in their history, with key men like Jonathan David at Juventus and Alphonso Davies at Bayern Munich. The extent to which kind the draw appears depends mostly on whether Italy progress through the European play-off (the remaining three teams are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, and Wales).

After failing to qualify in 1998 and 2002, the Swiss have got through the group stage in four of the past five World Cups and were last-eight participants at the last two European Championships. Murat Yakin’s side booked their ticket without defeat from probably the easiest of the UEFA qualifying groups and, with experienced campaigners like Ricardo Rodriguez and Granit Xhaka, have players aiming to feature at their fourth finals. Qatar, having ended up fourth in their third phase qualifying section, were given a significant boost by being chosen as a host for the final round and clinched qualification with a 2-1 victory over the UAE. Julen Lopetegui’s squad is selected exclusively from the domestic league.

Pool C

Scotland's first World Cup in 28 years looks a lot like their last appearance, when they were defeated to the Seleção and Morocco; Haiti occupy the place of Norway. Their primary objective will be to progress to the knockout stage for the first time after 8 previous group phase eliminations. Haiti’s only prior World Cup, in 1974, was remembered less for their three defeats than for the fate that befell midfielder Ernst Jean-Joseph who, after testing positive in a doping test, was beaten by Haitian army officers before being sent back. They will have limited away support due to travel restrictions from the USA.

Carlo Ancelotti became Brazil’s third coach in a qualification campaign that included a run of three consecutive losses, but there is minimal jeopardy in South American qualification these days. He has presided over a clear improvement. Semi-finalists in Qatar in 2022, Morocco look the strongest of the north African nations, capable both of overwhelming rivals and playing on the counter, qualifying with a 100% win record.

Group D

Early last year, the United States seemed in a dismal condition, losing to Panama and Canada in the Concacaf Nations League and to Turkey and Switzerland in friendlies. But over the last year, Mauricio Pochettino has apparently begun to get his message across and in November the USA defeated Paraguay before routing Uruguay 5-1 in exhibition games. They will start against the Paraguayan side, who are competing in their sixth World Cup. They have secured one game at each of the previous five, a statistic that has resulted to both group-stage eliminations and a quarter-final place. Their trademark cautious approach has not changed: they managed only 14 goals in their 18 games in South American qualification.

This is not the most free-flowing Australian side and their squad lacks obvious stars, but despite an iffy beginning to the third round of Asian qualification, Tony Popovic’s side qualified by beating Japan at home and Saudi Arabia away under immense pressure in their final two matches. The group’s fourth team will come from the victor of Europe’s playoff C (Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia, or Turkey).

Pool E

After back-to-back group phase eliminations, Die Mannschaft are no longer the bogeymen of old. The shift to a more attacking style has introduced a vulnerability and the draw initially looked like presenting a massive challenge to Julian Nagelsmann’s side. The Ecuadorian team were the surprise package of qualification, ending up second behind Argentina in South America. While they netted only 14 goals in 18 games, a defence including Willian Pacho of Paris Saint-Germain and Piero Hincapié of Arsenal, protected by Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo, let in a mere five.

Côte d’Ivoire exist in a state of constant pessimism, where nothing is ever quite successful as the glorious generation of 15-20 years ago. But since assuming control during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, manager Emerse Faé has proved inspirational. Following an improbable continental success on home soil, Côte d’Ivoire were clinical in qualification, scoring 25 goals without none.

The smallest country ever to qualify, Curaçao, were the final team drawn, though, making the group look a lot far less daunting than it might have appeared.

Group F

Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands side maybe lack the star quality of previous Dutch eras, but they qualified without losing and Memphis Depay, who bagged eight goals in qualifying, consistently looks a more effective player with his country's side than at domestic level. They begin against the Japanese team, who will play in their eighth consecutive World Cup, and were by some way the most dominant of the Asian sides in qualifying, suffering one of their 16 games across the two groups, with a total goal difference of 54-3.

The Tunisian side made sure of a third straight finals appearance by dominating a straightforward qualification section, accumulating 28 points of a available 30. Sami Trabelsi’s squad are perhaps not as dour as some past Tunisian teams; they had a remarkable 14 different goalscorers in qualifying. If Graham Potter’s Sweden progress through the UEFA play-off (against Ukraine in the semi, then either Poland or Albania in the final), that will set up a repeat of the group stage game in Dortmund in 1974 when Johan Cruyff first performed the famous Cruyff Turn.

Pool G

Belgium and Egypt are moving on from the shadow of their most talented generations. Rudi Garcia’s Belgium were erratic in qualifying, scoring the net eight times but letting in five in two wins over Wales, scoring easily at times, but also laboring to a 1-1 draw away to Kazakhstan.

Egypt are the most successful side in African history, but having failed to reach the finals during their golden period 15-20 years ago, they have never fully fulfilled their potential on the world stage. Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush give them cutting edge, but it was a defence that conceded only twice in 10 games that ensured they qualified undefeated.

A reserved place for Oceania effectively equated to a spot at the finals for New Zealand, who cruised through qualification, winning five games out of five, netting 29 goals, nine of them by Chris Wood, but they are the lowest-ranked side to have booked their place in North America next summer. Iran, who lost only once in a difficult third phase qualifying group, are on a travel ban, potentially