As it has become accustomed to for a decade now, the French team did not hesitate to validate its qualification for the 2026 World Cup. If they did not achieve a flawless performance due to their draw in Iceland, the Blues quietly finished in first place in their group and thus won their ticket to America.
Didier Deschamps and his staff will be in the United States from December 5 to attend the draw. With its third place in the FIFA Ranking, the French team is guaranteed to be in pot 1 and therefore seeded. Enough to allow it to avoid other big names such as Spain, Argentina, England, Brazil or Portugal during the group stage.
The Blues are, however, not safe from coming across some former World Cup winners, first and foremost Uruguay and especially Italy, at least if the Nazionale makes it out of the Europe zone play-offs. Morocco, semi-finalist in 2022, Croatia or Norway will also be avoided.
The same group as in 2022?
France could also inherit a group which will have an air of déjà vu. At least if Denmark, which missed its direct qualification for the World Cup in added time of its match in Scotland on Tuesday, maintains its place in the play-offs.
In which case, Denmark, like all the qualifiers from the play-offs, should be placed in hat 4. A prospect which would give the Blues the possibility of inheriting the same draw as in 2022 since its other opponents in Qatar, Australia and Tunisia, are respectively in hats 2 and 3. The air of déjà vu would not be very pleasant for Didier Deschamps’ men.
The chances are certainly low. But they were already in 2022, when France, Australia and Denmark met again, four years after the World Cup in Russia, where they were already in the same group.
