Five Porto players battle for a place at the 2026 World Cup | OneFootball

Five FC Porto players will try this Tuesday to secure a place at the 2026 World Cup. From 7:45pm onwards, the national teams of Bednarek, Kiwior and Pietuszewski (Poland), Froholdt (Denmark) and Deniz Gul (Turkey) will have their final chance to qualify for the competition, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. For FC Porto, having as many players as possible at the World Cup represents a considerable asset, not only because of the financial compensation granted by FIFA for each player released to national-team duty, but also because of the media impact this could have on increasing the value of its assets.

Interestingly, all five Porto players’ national teams will play away from home in the decisive play-off: Poland travel to Sweden, Turkey go to Kosovo and Denmark face the Czech Republic in Prague. Several national teams with players linked to FC Porto, such as Portugal, Brazil, Argentina or Canada (Eustáquio is on loan at Los Angeles FC), not to mention Ivory Coast, with Fofana (in this case on loan from Rennes), have already secured their place at the major tournament.

This quintet now still has to achieve the ultimate goal. Starting with the national team with the most Dragons, Poland faces, in theory, the toughest challenge: they have not beaten Sweden away from home for 96 years. Even so, head coach Jan Urban remains unbeaten in charge of the team, with six matches without defeat. Poland finished second in their qualifying group and, in the play-off semi-finals, knocked out Albania, while Sweden had a campaign far below expectations, without a single win and finishing behind Kosovo. Sweden’s place in the play-off came from their strong Nations League performance, where they secured promotion from Division C to B.

Turkey, with Deniz Gul, beat Romania 1-0 at home and now travel to Kosovo, who caused a surprise by defeating Slovakia away 4-3. It is a dangerous opponent, although the head-to-head record favours the Turks: three matches, three wins. Throughout their history, the Turkish national team has appeared in only two World Cup final tournaments.

Lastly, Denmark, with Victor Froholdt, reached this stage after an emphatic 4-0 win over North Macedonia. The Czech Republic are strong on home soil, but Denmark are in good form and, although a balanced contest is expected, they start as slight favourites.

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