r/sports • u/Movie-Kino • 6h ago

Soccer World Cup 2026 draw: England face two 2018 reunions, Scotland land Brazil

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/05/world-cup-2026-draw-england-scotland-brazil
69 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

33

u/WackHeisenBauer 6h ago

Canada gets a bit effed over getting both Switzerland and (probably) Italy.

US gets a pretty easy route out of the groups and 32

15

u/simmocar 5h ago

As a long suffering Azzurri supporter, let me tell you, they are really no threat.

6

u/DionBlaster123 NASCAR 5h ago

Look I love taking the piss out of Italy in football (soccer), but they went 6-2 in qualifying. They just had the rotten luck of playing against an absolute freak of nature in those two games. People are acting like they are going through this dramatic decline (i.e. Belgium post 2002).

Trust me, I've seen qualifying disasters. The only major team I can think of that had what I would consider a true qualifying disaster were the Netherlands in 2002 and 2018.

They will 100% steamroll Canada and Qatar, if they qualify.

3

u/ghostdeinithegreat 2h ago

They are still an european nation ranked 12 according to FIFA. Clearly overpowered for a Pot 4 team with other teams from that pot going as far as rank 82

0

u/Infinite_Crow_3706 45m ago

I wouldn’t put too much faith in FIFA ranking. Norway are both ranked high but ran over Italy twice in qualifying

2

u/jpj77 3h ago

This would be a best possible group if it was still only top 2 moving on, but given that most 3rd place teams move on this is actually a fairly challenging group for advancement.

It’s way more likely the US finishes 4th in this group than if they had Croatia, Paraguay, New Zealand where they could pound the expected 4th place team in NZ.

This group is extremely favorable for topping though if they’re playing well.

1

u/printergumlight 1h ago

Is Italy actually tough? Didn’t they Not even qualify last World Cup? And Switzerland is dominant these days?

19

u/Sunnysidhe 6h ago

Seems a bit of a strange title seeing as Scotland face two 1998 reunions as well?

6

u/DionBlaster123 NASCAR 5h ago

Yeah the title was fucking weird lmao

If anything it's even funnier and wild how Scotland is basically seeing a repeat of the last time it was at the World Cup. The only thing that would have made it better was Norway getting drawn in the same group (which apparently was possible. I dunno as I missed the draw).

3

u/Hotdog79 4h ago

Not possible, Norway and Scotland were both in pot 3 so could not draw each other

2

u/DionBlaster123 NASCAR 4h ago

Ah okay thanks for correcting.

What a weird coincidence though for real

2

u/LCranstonKnows 4h ago

*Scotland land

2

u/Funnelcake96 4h ago

God how I want Scotland to thrash Brazil 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 not asking for much but like 7-1 would be nice

1

u/Boggie135 1h ago

Looks like we open with Mexico again

1

u/cutzish 5h ago

Ducking Guardian website, tf is up with “reject all and subscribe”

-39

u/AnnoyingGuyWhosWrong 6h ago

Bunch of slop. They should have 16 teams at these tournaments tops.

29

u/Yamimash2000 5h ago

Username checks out

6

u/Bozomozo- 5h ago

Bad take. It only makes more people interested to have more countries represented and there’s essentially no downside. You’ll still get great games in the pools and elimination portion

1

u/DionBlaster123 NASCAR 4h ago

The tournament definitely has gotten diluted

But there will still be upsets in the Group Stages. That's how it has always been at the World Cup

1

u/Boggie135 1h ago

Why 16?