The eyes of world football fans are turning to the qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup finals, within the global playoff.
The Iraqi national team will meet in a fateful confrontation against the Bolivia national team, as part of the qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup.
Iraq’s only appearance in the World Finals was in the Mexico 1986 edition, and the “Lions of Mesopotamia” hopes to make history again after qualifying from the Asian playoff following its exciting victory over the Emirates on aggregate in two home and away matches (3-2).
Although Iraq is missing goalkeeper and captain Jalal Hassan, along with left back Ahmed Yahya due to injury, the team will rely on the distinguished duo Ali Jassim and Ayman Hussein, knowing that the latter has scored eight goals so far in the qualifying campaign.
Iraq will also benefit from the physical readiness factor, unlike Bolivia, which had to make a great effort to resolve its play-off semi-final match against Suriname, after coming from behind in the second half to win (2-1) over the CONCACAF representative.
The Bolivian national team remained largely under pressure during the first hour of the match, before things changed with the entry of 18-year-old player, Moises Paniagua, as the team scored two goals within eight minutes to turn the tables.
Bolivia’s only appearance in the finals also came in the 1994 US edition.
If Iraq wins, the number of Arab teams qualifying for the 2026 World Cup will increase to eight teams for the first time, as seven teams have qualified so far, namely: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria.
On the other hand, the Italian national team will face off against its counterpart, the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, in the World Cup qualifying play-off final, as the Azzurri seek to secure their place in the finals for the first time in 12 years.
The former European champions enter the match with the ambition of breaking the complex of absence from the World Cup that has haunted them in the past two editions, in a match hosted by Bilino Polje Stadium in the Bosnian city of Zenica.
In this context, one of the Italian national team players explained: “We all know what we are playing for. For me and some other big players, this may be our last chance.”
This confrontation comes under great pressure on the Italian team to avoid missing the World Cup for the third time in a row, after being eliminated from the playoffs in the previous editions against Sweden and North Macedonia, as the team seeks to overcome these historical stumbling blocks and achieve victory in Zenica to ensure a return to the global forum.
