It is this Friday that the European selections will decide their fate. Fifa will meet at 12 p.m. for the draw for the qualifiers in the UEFA zone for the 2026 World Cup which will be organized in Canada, Mexico and the United States. To be precise, Didier Deschamps’ French team will know its two possible qualifying groups. The Blues will play in a group of four if they win their Nations League quarter-final next March against Croatia. Otherwise, they can join a group of 5 and start the playoffs next June.
Second Fifa nation just behind Argentina, France is therefore one of the 12 seeds in the draw and is guaranteed to avoid a big chunk like Spain, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, the Belgium, Italy, Germany or even Switzerland and Denmark. But “La Dèche” and its staff tremble at the idea of drawing lots for ambitious teams capable of creating a surprise. There will probably be setbacks. The first 12 will qualify for the World Cup 26, the second will play in the play-offs (with 4 drafted from the Nations League).
The Blues of Deschamps against Haaland?
In hat 2, it will be necessary in particular to avoid Norway of the duo Martin Odegaard-Erling Haaland or Sweden of scorer Viktor Gyökeres, but also teams which have performed well in the Nations League over the last three months such as the Czech Republic, Greece (second tied with England in their group), Wales (the only undefeated team in league B) and Romania (author of 6 out of 6 in league C). Poland and Serbia will also dream of playing the World Cup again after their participation in 2022.
Top seeds like the EDF can also worry about certain national teams in hat 3: Scotland, Slovenia and Albania, who qualified directly for the last Euro, and Georgia coached by Willy Sagnol, who won in the play-offs to then shine in Germany. Finally, hat 4 and 5 offer trips to distant places such as the Faroe Islands, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and even Armenia, Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan.
