{"id":577992,"date":"2026-04-01T06:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577992\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T06:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:44:10","slug":"iraq-snare-final-world-cup-position-despite-middle-east-war-disruptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577992\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq snare final World Cup position despite Middle East war disruptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iraq have become the final team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup with a 2-1 intercontinental playoff win against Bolivia in Mexico despite preparations being hindered by the current Middle East war.<\/p>\n

Led by Australian coach Graham Arnold, the Iraqis will play in football’s showpiece event for the first time in 40 years – with their last appearance coincidentally coming at Mexico 1986.<\/p>\n

They will be drawn into Group I – a formidable group featuring France, Senegal and Norway.<\/p>\n

Arnold was keen for the match to be postponed in the lead-up, with concerns how his Iraqi-based players would make the journey to Mexico.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0World Cup teams qualified: List of nations playing at 2026 FIFA tournament and how qualification works<\/a><\/p>\n

However, those particular squad members endured a three-day journey from Baghdad that included an overland crossing into Jordan to ensure they could be available for the playoff.<\/p>\n

Despite the arduous journey, Iraq took the lead after 10 minutes via Ali Al-Hamadi but were pegged seven minutes prior to the break by a strike from\u00a0Moises Paniagua.<\/p>\n

Bolivia pushed for the go-ahead goal in the reminder of the half but a resolute Iraqi defence managed to contain the match at 1-1.<\/p>\n

Iraq secured the winning goal eight minutes after half-time when captain Aymen Hussein finished first-time and the team kept Bolivia at bay throughout the remainder of the match despite significant pressure.<\/p>\n

Arnold becomes the first Australian coach to lead two nations to the World Cup after taking the Socceroos to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n

The Aussie tactician coached the Socceroos to their equal-best finish at the finals, losing in the round-of-16 to eventual champions Argentina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraq have become the final team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup with a 2-1 intercontinental playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-577992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}