England and five others confirm their places at the 2026 World Cup
In total there are now 28 nations qualified for next summer’s tournament, the first in the expanded 48-team format.
With less than a year to go until the 2026 World Cup kicks off, another six teams confirmed their spots in Tuesday’s games.
The expanded 48-team tournament is the largest in World Cup history, with games to be played across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 104 games will be played in 15 host cities across the three countries and the final lineup of teams is now starting to take shape.
On Tuesday England, South Africa, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal booked their passage to the tournament. With those additions the number of nations to have qualified now stands at 28, including the three host nations.
Speaking after a 5-0 win over Latvia, England head coach Thomas Tuchel said: “We made it, and we made it with another good performance and a top result. Six wins and clean sheets, we are very happy.”
Tuesday’s games were the final fixtures from a busy October international break and players will now return to their club teams to resume the domestic season. Much of the remaining places in the 2026 World Cup will be decided during the November international break, the final one of the year.
The biggest story of the October internationals came on Monday, when Cape Verde secured qualification to the World Cup for the first time. The tiny island nation of 524,877 inhabitants is the second-smallest country to ever qualify for the tournament, behind only Iceland.
Cape Verde only gained independence from Portugal in the 1970s but has already made real progress in the world of international soccer. The country reached the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 and 2023, and is now ranked 70th in the FIFA men’s world rankings.
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