Iraq faces the winner between Bolivia and Suriname… and Italy vs. Northern Ireland

The Iraqi national team will face the winner between Bolivia and Suriname in the final of one of the two global playoff tracks for the 2026 World Cup in soccer scheduled for North America, according to the draw held Thursday at the headquarters of the International Federation (FIFA) in Zurich, while Italy, the four-time world champion, will meet Northern Ireland in the semi-final of one of the European playoff tracks.

In the other track of the global playoff, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will play with the winner between Jamaica and New Caledonia.

The supplement will be held between March 23 and 31 next in Mexico, and the winner of the two tracks will qualify for the finals in which 48 teams will participate for the first time in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Iraq qualified for this playoff after beating the UAE 3-2 on aggregate in the fifth round of the Asian qualifiers, after occupying second place in the second group in the fourth round, behind Saudi Arabia on goal difference.

The playoff system stipulates that the two highest-ranked teams qualify directly to the final, while the other four lower-ranked teams play the semi-finals.

Therefore, Iraq will compete with the Democratic Republic of Congo (it qualified at the expense of Cameroon and Nigeria in the African playoff) in the final of the two tracks, given their international classification, as the African team currently ranks 56th and the “Lions of Mesopotamia” currently ranks 58th.

In contrast, Jamaica ranks 70th, Bolivia 76th, Suriname 123rd and New Caledonia 149th.

If it wins its match in the second track, Iraq will participate for the second time in its history in the World Cup after 1986 in Mexico.

The two CONCACAF teams (Suriname and Jamaica) were placed in two separate tracks according to FIFA’s general lottery rule.

Like Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo hopes to return to the World Cup after participating only in Germany in 1974 under the name “Zaire.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo ousted Nigeria, which had previously participated in six matches, in the African play-off final on penalties.

In turn, Jamaica reached the World Cup after finishing second in the second group of the CONCACAF qualifiers, and is the best ranked team among the teams that finished second, and it also dreams of returning to the World Cup after participating only in France in 1998.

Likewise, Suriname came second in the first group and is looking for its first World Cup participation ever since its first participation in the 1978 qualifiers after gaining its independence.

As for Bolivia, it is considered the most experienced among the competing teams, with three previous participations, but the last of them was in 1994 in the United States, while Caledonia is the lowest ranked (14).

The third is fixed
Italy will meet its guest, Northern Ireland, in the semi-final of the first track of the European playoff, and if it surpasses it, it will face the winner between Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina to win one of the four remaining cards from Europe.

Italy hopes that its participation in the playoffs for the third time in a row will be consistent, after it failed to overcome it in the last two editions when it was eliminated by Sweden (0-1 and 0-0) in 2018, and North Macedonia (0-1) in the 2022 World Cup.

Italy was unable to reserve its ticket directly to the World Cup by finishing second in Group Nine, six points behind leaders Norway, and thus was forced to enter the playoff, which included the 16 teams distributed in four tracks, the champion of each of which qualifies for the finals.

The semi-final matches will be held on March 26, and the final on March 31.

Ukraine will meet Sweden, Poland will meet Albania in the semi-finals of the second track, Turkey will meet Romania, Slovakia will meet Kosovo in the semi-finals of the third track, Denmark will meet North Macedonia, and the Czech Republic will meet the Republic of Ireland in the semi-finals of the fourth track.