It's simple: the French team will be able to know in less than three months if it is qualified directly for the 2026 World Cup organized in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The Blues compete in an entry shock against Ukraine, the outsider of the pool, in two weeks (September 5) in Poland, before Iceland's reception at the Parc des Princes four days later. They will then face Azerbaijan and will go to Reykjavik in October, before finding the Ukrainians on November 13 for a possible “final”.
Kylian Mbappé and his teammates must finish at the top of their qualifying group in order to book their trip to North America next summer (June 11-July 19). By finishing only second, they will be in great danger by playing the dams of the Europe zone, in the form of four Final Four (a semi-final and a final). In the event of direct qualification, France will be part of the heads of the tournament, in the event of passage by the dams, they will be immersed in hats 4 of the draw!
As FIFA announced this Saturday, the circulation of the group phase of the World Cup 26 will take place on December 5 in Washington DC (12 noon on the east coast of the US, 6 p.m. in France). Since there will be 48 participants for the first time in history, the teams will be distributed in four hats of 12 teams to train 12 groups of four (which will lead to 16th finals). The three host countries as well as Argentina and Brazil, already qualified in the AMSUD zone, are already in hat 1.
The Blues against Morocco or Algeria?
Except thunderclap in European qualifications, Spain, France, England, Portugal, the Netherlands and Germany will complete the first pot. That said, the Red Devils led by Rudi Garcia have already started their qualifying campaign and are 3rd behind the North Macedonia and Wales for the moment. If the Belgians do not finish first, we would then find Croatia in hat 1 if the selection still led by Luka Modric pockets his sesame.
Didier Deschamps' training would avoid all the other favorites in the world coronation, but could well inherit several major opponents from other hats. In the 2, we should find Morocco, Senegal, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland and Denmark, according to the projections of Football meets data. In the 3rd hat, Algeria, Ecuador and Norway would be very bad prints! And hat 4 will be made up of the four winners of European dams, knowing that the Blues can end up with another representative of the Old Continent. For the moment, Italy is projected as qualified via the dams…
