The Blues know more about the identity of their future opponents for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The draw, in Zurich, Friday December 13, identified two possible paths for the France team, which will depend on his results during the final phase of the League of Nations.
If it wins its Nations League quarter-final against Croatia on March 20, 2025, France will battle in Pool D with Ukraine, Iceland and Azerbaijan. In the event of defeat, the Blues will be transferred to a group of five teams, group L. The adversity will be even less severe, with the Czech Republic, Montenegro, the Faroe Islands a Gibraltar.
“We have seven potential adversaries with different profilesreacted coach Didier Deschamps. We know a little more but we don’t know everything yet. It’s complicated for many people to understand the draw. There is less visibility compared to what was there before but the key word is to adapt.”
However, there is no question of entering into apothecary calculations: “We are not going to play the quarter-final of the Nations League to be either in the group of five or in the group of four. This will have an impact but what is more problematic is the supervision of these teams since it will take a lot of people to see our potential opponents. This is the particularity of this draw which is not completely decisive.” The four semi-finalists of the League of Nations will not begin their qualifying campaign until September 2025, unlike the losers of the quarter-finals who will begin the qualifiers in June.
The matches will be played from the end of March (21 to 25) to November. Only the first in each group will directly qualify for the World Cup in North America. The twelve teams that finish second in the qualifying phase will fight, along with the four best Nations League group winners not among the top two in their qualifying group, through play-offs to recover the two last qualifying tickets.
Among the qualifying groups noted, let us quote B, with in particular Switzerland and Sweden (in addition to Slovenia and Kosovo), E with the winner of Spain-Netherlands, to which will be added Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria, without forgetting the K where England will meet Serbia which it had difficultly beaten during the final phase of Euro 2024.
The complete draw
Group A: winner of Germany-Italy, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Luxembourg.
Group B: Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia, Kosovo.
Group C: loser Portugal-Denmark, Greece, Scotland, Belarus.
Group D: France-Croatia winnerUkraine, Iceland, Azerbaijan.
Group E: winner Spain-Netherlands, Türkiye, Georgia, Bulgaria.
Group F: winner Portugal-Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Armenia.
Group G: loser Spain-Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Malta.
Group H: Austria, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, San Marino.
Group I: loser Germany-Italy, Norway, Israel, Estonia, Moldova.
Group J: Belgium, Wales, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein.
Group K: England, Serbia, Albania, Latvia, Andorra.
Group L: loser France-CroatiaCzech Republic, Montenegro, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar.
