UEFA defined its last places for the next World Cup. It only remains to define two more participants
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The European Qualifiers have come to an end. In a day with several simultaneous matches, the last four UEFA qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup were finally confirmed: Sweden, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina
.
The first to finish its qualification for the ticket to the next World Cup was Sweden, which won 3-2 over Poland, with goals from Anthony Elanga, Gustaf Lagerbielke and Viktor Gyökeres.
Sweden beat Poland and will be in Group F of the World Cup
The Nordics will make up Group F along with the Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia and will return to the world championships after their
last appearance in Russia 2018.
The other match that I need only 90 minutes to know the winner was the one between Kosovo and Turkey, which ended in a 0-1 victory for the Turks with a single goal scored by Kerem Aktürkoğlu.
Turkey beat Kosovo and will be in Group D of the World Cup
The team led by the Italian Vincenzo Montella will be part of Group D, also made up of the host United States, Australia and Paraguay, and will be present at a World Cup after 24 years of absence.
His last participation was in the Korea-Japan 2002 edition, where he had a historic performance, achieving an unexpected third place.
Almost an hour later, the third place finisher of the European night would be announced: the Czech Republic. After drawing 1-1against Denmark in regulation time and maintaining equality with 2-2 in overtime, the Czechs won 3-1 in the penalty shootout
. Czech Republic beat Denmark on penalties and will be in Group A of the World Cup
Those led by Miroslav Koubek will be in Group A with hosts Mexico, South Africa and South Korea and will be part of a world championship event after 20 years (their last participation
was in Germany 2006).
Finally, there was the match that had all eyes on: Bosnia - Italy. In a new role for the Tana national team, the team led by the stainless Edin Džeko surprised and won the fourth and last European place available.
After equalizing 1-1, the series came from the 12 steps, where the locals won forcefully 4-1.Bosnia beat Italy on penalties and will be in Group B of the World Cup
With this classification, the Bosnians will be in Group B, along with hosts Canada, Qatar and Switzerland, in what will be their second appearance in the highest event of national football. The last one was in Brazil 2014, where they were in the same group from Argentina.
For its part, Italy has not qualified for the World Cup for 12 years (it did not play in the 2018 editions [eliminated by Sweden], 2022 [eliminated by North Macedonia] and 2026 [eliminated by Bosnia]).
Italy was out of a World Cup for the third time in a row
There are only 2 left.
With the European playoffs finally over, 46 teams have already qualified out of the 48 totals that the next world championship will have. The only two remaining spots are from the intercontinental playoffs, which will come out of the winners of the duels between Jamaica and the Republic of the Congo (being played at the time of publication of this note) and Bolivia and Iraq (to be played on April 1
