The 2026 FIFA World Cup is doing exactly what FIFA hoped a 48-team tournament would do: creating more chaos, more heartbreak, and more Cinderella stories than any World Cup before it. Paraguay, Egypt, Portugal, England, and Ghana have all secured their spots in the Round of 32, a knockout stage that literally did not exist until this tournament.
The qualifications were confirmed across June 26-27, 2026, with some teams cruising through as group winners, others scraping by as runners-up, and at least one sneaking in through the expanded format’s best third-place pathway.
How each team got through
Paraguay’s route was the most precarious of the five. They advanced as one of the best third-place teams, a qualification mechanism that only exists because FIFA expanded the tournament from 32 to 48 teams. Their path required a win over Türkiye and a draw with Australia, a combination that was just enough to keep them alive when other groups’ results fell their way.
England and Ghana took a more straightforward route through Group L. The two sides played to a 0-0 draw on June 24, a result that proved sufficient to send both nations into the knockout rounds.
