2026 World Cup

Draw starts at 11am. We're third of four (maybe five) teams, so an approachable second seed is key if this isn't going to be another damp squib like the Euro 2024 campaign, which was our worst in 50 years or more. The second seeds all seem half-decent, though maybe 15 years ago we wouldn't have worried too much about any of them.

UEFA presumably making up the rules as they go along - I think I read somewhere this is the most complicated draw they've ever done in terms of restrictions? I still don't know if we can get a 5-team group or not.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5
France Spain England Portugal Netherlands Belgium Italy Germany Croatia Switzerland Denmark Austria	Ukraine Sweden Türkiye Wales Hungary Serbia Poland Romania Greece Slovakia Czechia Norway	Scotland Slovenia Republic of Ireland Albania North Macedonia Georgia Finland Iceland Northern Ireland Montenegro Bosnia and Herzegovina Israel	Bulgaria Luxembourg Belarus Kosovo Armenia Kazakhstan Azerbaijan Estonia Cyprus Faroe Islands Latvia Lithuania	Moldova Malta Andorra Gibraltar Liechtenstein San Marino

Links
2026 FIFA World Cup(fifa)
2026 FIFA World Cup(wikipedia)
2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification
2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification - UEFA
2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification - UEFA Group F

Draw about to start. Coverage on RTE NewsNow

Group so far...

Portugal or Denmark as top seed.
Hungary as second seed.
Ireland as third seed.

Could have been much, much worse

We are in one of the four team groups as opposed to the five team groups.

It's not entirely clear to me how they will decide the final team in our group. I'm not even sure if it will be decided today.... something about waiting for playoffs or something.

Armenia to complete it (being the last team in the playoffs)

Could have been worse, but that's still a very tough group. Hungary have been to the last three Euros and have had some great results in the last few years, including hammering England and drawing at home with Germany and Holland in the last Nations League. The winner of Denmark and Portugal will have beaten Portugal or Denmark to get us of course. And while we should beat Armenia, we didn't the last time we went there.

Obviously the Hungary games are key. Wouldn't be hugely confident of qualifying though.

It's Armenia

It's not terrible! Having a solid 9 months and at least 4 more matches to prep before qualifying is probably exactly what HH needed. More time for these players to develop at their clubs too.

Not the worst draw.

I mean we have an outside chance of a playoff, but all in all, that's not too bad compared to previous draws.

I do feel we are on the up with a competent manager. Hungary are a good side with some very good players. I think with the wind blowing the right way in terms of injuries we can turn them over though. Armenia are a dangerous pot 4 team that will have the same attitude towards us.

Smaller groups may work in our favour. I wouldn't have faith that we would take six points off pot 5 sides at this point. Less room for a **** up.

By our recent experiences that draw is absolutely fine. We won't be favoured to finish in the top 2, but there's a possible path there, which there hasn't been in most recent draws.

-We avoided a 5 team group and having to play qualifiers in June
-We avoided the horrendous looking Group E, which is exactly the kind of group we have been landing in recently
-We avoided Greece
-We got one of the more manageable Pot 2 teams in Hungary
-We're highly unlikely to be in with a chance of winning this group, but the Pot 1 team could have been worse as well.

Overall, not bad at all.

Record V the other teams in Group F
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDhKP4wtyvw

Not Ireland related but a bit of an odd one that Spain and the Netherlands would be better off being the loser of their Nations League quarter final in terms of World Cup qualification prospects. I'd say Spain won't be too worried either way but Netherlands might be happy enough to take the loss and avoid Turkey and Georgia.

All the groups with current FIFA Rankings:

Group A: Germany(10)/Italy(9) (winner), Slovakia(41), Northern Ireland(71), Luxembourg(92).

Group B: Switzerland(20), Sweden(27), Slovenia(55), Kosovo(99).

Group C: Portugal(6)/Denmark(21) (loser), Greece(39), Scotland(45), Belarus(98).

Group D: France(2)/Croatia(13) (winner), Ukraine(25), Iceland(70), Azerbaijan(117).

Group E: Spain(3)/Netherlands(7) (winner), Turkey(28), Georgia(68), Bulgaria(82).

Group F: Portugal(6)/Denmark(21) (winner), Hungary(30), Republic of Ireland(60), Armenia(100).

Group G: Spain(3)/Netherlands(7) (loser), Poland(35), Finland(69), Lithuania(142), Malta(169).

Group H: Austria(22), Romania(38), Bosnia-Herzegovina(74), Cyprus(130), San Marino(210).

Group I: Germany(10)/Italy(9) (loser), Norway(43), Israel(76), Estonia(123), Moldova(151).

Group J: Belgium(8), Wales(29), North Macedonia(67), Kazakhstan(110), Liechtenstein(204).

Group K: England(4), Serbia(32), Albania(65), Latvia(140), Andorra(171).

Group L: France(2)/Croatia(13) (loser), Czech Republic(42), Montenegro(73), Faroe Islands(137), Gibraltar(197).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brine3

It's not entirely clear to me how they will decide the final team in our group. I'm not even sure if it will be decided today.... something about waiting for playoffs or something.

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Just on this btw - Portugal and Denmark play in the Nations League quarter-final in March. The winners will be in our group.

When you are as crap as we are at the moment every group looks tough, but will take that draw. Don't see any obviously much easier groups, maybe A or H.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Just on this btw - Portugal and Denmark play in the Nations League quarter-final in March. The winners will be in our group.

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Perhaps Portugal will take a dive, to avoid us ! (wink)

Initial rection is that qualification is possible via a playoff, not likely but possible. No group of death so will take that. Hungary is the sort of sides we'd need to be targeting as we improve and past history of Armenia aside we should be beating. You wouldnt rule out being able to frustrate Denmark in a 1st 45 v England and they'd have less individual quality. Maybe its with recent group draws in mind but not bad imo. Northern Ireland have gotten a poor one, Scotland it deends on which side turns up v Greece. Wales have the pick even as a pot 2 side, still a handy enough one on paper. There isnt realy a proper group of death. We need the March and June camps so 4 side group works better.

A better way o putting it is ther is a good spread of pretty equally tough groups rather than one usual (England) cakewalk and 1 (Ireland) stinker.

It was always less likely there would be an out and out group of death with the teams spread out among so many more groups than previously. But the Spain/Turkey/Georgia one is nasty all the same. Was worried we were going to be taking that spot instead of Georgia for part of the draw. We could probably forget about any hopes of progressing if we got that group, we'd get nothing off Spain and nothing away in Turkey and that would be that.

Scotland have become the new Ireland, playing Greece four times in 2025. I definitely don't think that's as good a draw as they seem to think it is. The north's group isn't much use to them as they won't be finishing any higher than second in that one at best and they are more or less guaranteed a playoff anyway through the Nations League. A lot of people seem to think Wales got a decent group, but going in as a second seed I would say that is a tough enough draw. Again they need to win it ahead of Belgium for it to be any use to them as they're already in the playoffs.

Am I wrong to think Hungary are the best 2nd seed possible? Presumably we end up with them and Portugal, who are 5th to 7th best of the 12 teams in the playoffs. Comparatively tough group overall.

Win the group = qualify
2nd seed = enter playoffs

You'd think, for example, the Nordies have a 50/50 shot of making the playoffs.

Best as in strongest or best as in most beatable? I'd say they're one of the better second seeds we could have gotten in terms of giving us a chance - if you look at the other four team groups (where we were always most likely to end up) Greece and Turkey would definitely have been worse, Sweden and Ukraine would probably have been worse. Slovakia or Hungary would have been the ones you'd prefer to draw.

I wouldn't have fancied us against Norway with Haaland, Odegaard and Sorloth in attack. They're inconsistent but they can really turn it on at times.

Greece are the highest-rated of the second seeds by Elo, with Norway, Serbia and Ukraine narrowly behind, followed by Hungary. Actually quite a difference to the FIFA rankings MetroStars has posted, which has Ukraine, Turkey and Hungary as the order.

Hungary have a fair few domestic-based players and the Hungarian league isn't the strongest, so they may be overachieving of late with three successive Euro qualifications and two League A campaigns in the Nations League. I feel we can give them a game, but then I felt that way about Greece too. There's potential for them to be more reliant one player (Szoboszlai) than some of the other second seeds; if he's injured that would help us a lot.

Doing the seeding based on world ranking again makes so much more sense than seeding by Nations League position, which royally screwed us over in the last campaign when we got France as second seeds. I don't think there's a massive amount between any of the second seeds really.