Argentina star slams 2026 World Cup format: “I don’t like it” | OneFootball

After the thrilling 2026 World Cup draw, the Argentina National Team already knows who they will face in the group stage and can start drawing conclusions for a possible round of 32 bracket. Algeria, Austria, and Jordan—in that order—will be the Albiceleste’s rivals, who could then face Uruguay or Spain in their first knockout match.

The new format of the most important football tournament has sparked discussion: more teams, more groups, and more matches for the champion. One of those who didn’t stay quiet and shared his opinion was Nicolás Tagliafico, who expressed his disagreement with the format of the next World Cup.

On a Twitch channel, speaking with streamer DavooXeneize, the left-back stated that having to play one more round on the way to the final “makes it long” and emphasized that “mentally, it’s very tough” for the players.

What Tagliafico said about the 2026 World Cup format

“I don’t like it. The two World Cups I played, the first one (Russia 2018) not so much because we reached the round of 16, but Qatar felt long. Think about it, in Doha we were at the university, we had our fields there, every trip to a match was 15 minutes and everything was very close. Even so, it felt extremely long,” explained the 33-year-old footballer.

He added: “Now you have at least five or six more days, if you reach the final. With the round of 32, for the team that manages to reach the final, mentally it’s very tough. I understand it’s a bit more of a show, more opportunities, but in the end it’s very tough. It’s almost a month and a half. It gets long.”

“What it also causes is that there isn’t a group where you’d say: ‘Uh, someone important or someone with history could be left out.’ They’re a bit more balanced, but it gets long,” he concluded.

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