Teams through to the last 32 at World Cup 2026 | OneFootball

The 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, will feature 48 teams divided into 12 groups of four teams each. As a result, more teams will advance to the next stage than in previous editions.

In the old format, countries were divided into eight groups of four, and the top two from each group advanced to the round of 16 after playing each other. From there, as in the Qatar 2022 World Cup—where the Argentine National Team emerged as the winner of the most important football event—the matches to determine the tournament champion were played in a single-elimination format.

However, with more teams competing in the next World Cup, more will qualify for the decisive rounds of the tournament. Thus, the requirement that the top two teams from each group advance to the round of 16 will remain, but the eight best third-placed teams will also move on.

Meanwhile, teams qualifying from the group stage will no longer advance directly to the round of 16, but will have to get through a preliminary round of the round of 32, played as a single-elimination match.

Argentina will aim to become the third team in history to win two consecutive World Cups, a feat achieved only by Italy (1934-38) and Brazil (1958-62). Due to its position in the FIFA ranking, Argentina will be one of the seeded teams, allowing it to avoid the major powers in the first phase.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.