The “blue-yellows” were seeded from the second basket and got into a group of four teams.
On Friday, December 13, the draw for the group stage of the European qualifying tournament for the 2026 World Cup in football took place in Zurich. The Ukrainian national team also received its opponents.
Serhiy Rebrov's team was seeded from the second basket and ended up in Group D, where they will play the winner of the quarter-final of the League of Nations Croatia – France, Iceland and Azerbaijan.
A total of 54 teams were divided into 12 groups of 4 or 5 teams, which will play one match against each other at home and away. See the full results of the draw for the European qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
Sixteen European teams will qualify for the 2026 World Cup. The 12 group winners will qualify directly for the final stage of the World Cup. Another four spots in the world championship will be awarded in the playoffs, where the 12 runners-up of the World Cup qualifying groups will compete with the four best group winners of the 2024/25 Nations League who finish lower than second in the group stage of the qualification.
The group stage of the European qualification for the 2026 World Cup will last from March to November 2025. The playoff matches will be held in March 2026, they will consist of single-match semi-finals and finals.
The 2026 World Cup will be held in three countries at once – the USA, Canada and Mexico. This World Cup will be the first in which 48 teams will take part. From 1998 to 2022, the World Cup used a 32-team format.
The opening match of the 2026 World Cup is scheduled for June 11, 2026 in Mexico City, and the final match will be held in New York on July 19.
Recall that the Russian team was not allowed to participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifying draw. The team of the aggressor country continues to be suspended from international competitions due to the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.