The “Blue-Yellows” will play against the winner of the Croatia-France pair, Iceland and Azerbaijan.
Head coach of the Ukrainian national team Serhiy Rebrov commented on the draw resultsgroup round of the European qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
The “blue-yellows” were seeded from the second basket and ended up in Group D. The opponents of Rebrov's team will be the winner of the 2024/25 Nations League quarterfinal Croatia – France, as well as the national teams of Iceland and Azerbaijan.
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“Any opponent is tough. We have what we have. I think we can play with anyone. Yes, we got France or Croatia from the first basket… In my opinion, the French are the favorites, but we'll see. We'll prepare and fight. The French have a higher rating, but I watched the Croatians' matches and I understand that they are also a very serious team. We need to use the time allotted before the start of the qualification and prepare well for each opponent.
It will be very difficult to play in Iceland, because this team plays very well at home. The Icelanders have improved a lot lately. Many of their players play in top leagues.
We plan to play two friendly matches in June. But negotiations are ongoing, so we cannot say anything specific about these matches. I will only note that we will choose opponents who will help us prepare for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Right now we don't know exactly where we'll host our group opponents. We don't even know where we'll play our home game against Belgium in the Nations League. “Negotiations are ongoing,” the official website of the UAF quotes Rebrov as saying.
The group stage of the European qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup will last from March to November 2025. The Ukrainian national team will begin qualifying for the World Cup in September 2025, as it was placed in a group of four teams instead of five.
The playoff matches will be held in March 2026 and will consist of single-match semi-finals and finals.
Sixteen European teams will qualify for the 2026 World Cup. The 12 group winners will directly qualify for the final stage of the World Cup. Another four tickets to the planetary championship will be played out in the playoffs, where the 12 runners-up of the World Cup qualifying groups and the four best winners of the 2024/25 Nations League groups who finish below second place in the group stage of qualification.
The 2026 World Cup will be held in three countries at once – the United States, Canada and Mexico. This World Cup will be the first in which 48 teams will play in the final part. From 1998 to 2022, the World Cup used a 32-team format.