The 12 groups for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, the United States, and Mexico have been confirmed following the conclusion of the final rounds of the playoffs and the second round of European qualification. According to the Argentine News Agency, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Turkey, and the Czech Republic secured their spots in the World Cup among the UEFA representatives, along with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq after winning their respective playoff matches. Among the finalized groups, one of the few that remained unchanged since the initial draw was Group J of the Argentine national team: as it did not share the group with teams from the playoffs, its zone will remain with Algeria, Austria, and Jordan as rivals. In the final matchday to determine the teams for the next World Cup, which was not without surprises and disappointments, 10 groups for the upcoming tournament were finalized. The team that will go to Group A is the Czech Republic, which came from two penalty shootout victories after drawing 2-2, defeating Ireland 4-3 and Denmark 3-1 on penalties. They will face Mexico, South Korea, and South Africa, which will be their second World Cup since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Group B will be Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had a dramatic qualification by defeating Italy 4-1 on penalties in the second playoff stage and overcoming Wales in the same manner. Their group will include Canada, Switzerland, and Qatar. Another team that advanced from the European playoffs was Turkey, which eliminated Romania 1-0 and Kosovo by the same score to reach its third World Cup in history. They will be in Group D with the United States, Australia, and Paraguay. Sweden, for its part, completed Group F with wins over Ukraine (3-1) and Poland (3-2), to compete in its thirteenth tournament, having been runner-up in the 1958 World Cup it hosted, and sharing the group with the Netherlands, Japan, and Tunisia. Finally, the last team to complete Group K is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which beat Jamaica 1-0 in regulation time. This will be their second World Cup in history; they qualified for the 1974 World Cup in Germany under the name of Zaire. Additionally, the playoffs determined the composition of the last group to be finalized, Group I, after a historic match where Iraq defeated Bolivia 2-1 in a match played in Mexico to join a tough group that they will have to share with France, Senegal, and Norway. The groups that were confirmed from the draw are C (Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, and Haiti), E (Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, and Curaçao), G (Belgium, Iran, Egypt, and New Zealand), H (Spain, Uruguay, Cape Verde, and Saudi Arabia), J (Argentina, Algeria, Austria, and Jordan), and finally L (England, Croatia, Panama, and Ghana).
