2026 World Cup finals play-offs have now been drawn for the 16 European countries | OneFootball

The play-offs have now been drawn for the 16 European countries still hoping to get to the 2026 World Cup finals, of special interest to four Newcastle United players.

Anthony Elanga, Sandro Tonali, Will Osula and Emil Krafth all taking a keen interest in today’s draw.

Four places are still available for the 16 European nations to compete for.

Thursday’s draw has seen all of the teams find out their semi-final play-off opponents and if they get through that, the two teams they could play in their respective finals.

There are 42 qualifiers (see below) already for the 2026 World Cup finals.

Sandro Tonali and Italy found out today that to join those already through, they will need to win at home against Northern Ireland, then their final would be an away match against either Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina.

As for Emil Krafth, Anthony Elanga and Sweden, they first need to win away (almost certainly will be played at neutral venue) against Ukraine, but then if getting through that, Sweden would be at home to Poland or Albania in their play-off final.

Will Osula hasn’t played for the senior Denmark side but was recently called up for the first time. The Danes are home to North Macedonia in their semi-final, then if getting past them, will be away to the Republic of Ireland or Czech Republic.

Here are the four play-off routes for the 16 European countries to get to the 2026 World Cup finals:

Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina v Italy or Northern Ireland Ukraine or Sweden v Poland or Albania Slovakia or Kosovo v Turkey or Romania Republic of Ireland or Czechia v Denmark or North Macedonia

The semi-finals will take place on Thursday, 26 March at 17:00 GMT or 19:45 GMT, and the finals on Tuesday, 31 March with kick-off times of 17:00 BST or 19:45 BST.

This is the explanation of how today’s draw was made and how it was decided the path for each of the 16 European teams competing in the play-offs to get to the 2026 World Cup finals

There are four places to be won, through four play-off paths each containing four teams with one-legged semi-finals and finals.

The draw on Thursday will create the individual paths.

The 16 countries are divided into four pots:

The 12 teams who finished runners-up in their group are seeded into three pots by their world ranking.

The fourth pot contains the four teams who were awarded a play-off through performance in the Uefa Nations League.

Pot 1: Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine

Pot 2: Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia

Pot 3: Republic of Ireland, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo

Pot 4: Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland

In the semi-finals, the seeded teams will be at home:

Pot 1 v Pot 4

Pot 2 v Pot 3

Each of the four paths will have one team from each pot, feeding into a final.

The home advantage in the finals will be determined by the draw on Thursday.

The draw starts with Pot 1 and ends with Pot 4.

The 42 teams now already through to the 2026 World Cup finals:

Hosts:

Canada, Mexico, United States

Africa:

Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia

Asia:

Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan

Europe:

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland

Oceania: