{"id":574751,"date":"2026-04-01T08:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574751\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:21:21","slug":"iraq-defeat-bolivia-2-1-to-qualify-for-fifa-world-cup-2026-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574751\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq defeat Bolivia 2-1 to qualify for FIFA World Cup 2026 | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goals from Ali al-Hamadi and Aymen Hussein send Iraq to their first FIFA World Cup since 1986.<\/p>\n

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Published On 1 Apr 20261 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

Iraq have ended a 40-year wait for an appearance at the FIFA World Cup with a 2-1 victory over Bolivia in the second final of the intercontinental playoffs in Mexico, making them the 48th team to qualify for the tournament.<\/p>\n

Goals from Ali al-Hamadi and Aymen Hussein helped the Lions of Mesopotamia edge past the South American nation at the Monterrey Stadium in Guadalupe on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Al-Hamadi\u2019s opener in the 10th minute gave Iraq the perfect start, but Moises Paniagua drew the Greens level 28 minutes later in a closely-contested match in one of the cohost nations of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The deadlock was broken shortly after the half-time break when Hussein scored the match-winning goal from close range as he slotted in Marko Farji\u2019s cross in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n

\"Iraq'sIraq\u2019s forward Ali al-Hamadi celebrates scoring his team\u2019s first goal against Bolivia at the Monterrey Stadium in Guadalupe, Mexico [Julio Cesar Aguilar\/AFP]<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s appearance at the qualifying tournament was in doubt<\/a> as the players were affected by the travel chaos resulting from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Weeks before their appearance in the playoff final, Iraq\u2019s coach Graham Arnold pleaded<\/a> with the organisers to delay their match to allow the squad to assemble and train for the all-important fixture.<\/p>\n

The players<\/a> and coaching staff arrived in Mexico just a week before the match on a charter flight and began preparations in the host city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must congratulate the players who played with real Iraqi mentality, fighting and putting their bodies on the line and that\u2019s why we won \u2060the game,\u201d a delighted Arnold said after Iraq\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so happy that we\u2019ve made 46 \u200cmillion people happy, and especially with what\u2019s going on in the Middle East at the moment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Arnold heaped praise on the South American opponents, who were looking to enter the World Cup for the first time since 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to give full credit \u2060to Bolivia, because they played well. And it was just through the great defending from our players, who put their bodies on the line, as I said, and we defended the crosses really well. That\u2019s why we won the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iraq'sIraq\u2019s Australian coach Graham Arnold celebrates with the fans [Julio Cesar Aguilar\/AFP]<\/p>\n

Iraq will be placed in one of the toughest groups at the World Cup. Their opponents in Group I will be France, Norway and Senegal.<\/p>\n

The Middle East team will face Norway in their opening game on June 16 in Boston. Their second fixture will be against 2018 champions France on June 22 in Philadelphia, and their final group game, against Senegal, will take place four days later in Toronto, Canada.<\/p>\n

Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were the two seeded teams at the playoff tournament and directly qualified for the finals.<\/p>\n

Both lived up to their reputations by winning the matches that decided the final two participants of the 48-team tournament to be cohosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n

DRC defeated Jamaica 1-0 in the earlier fixture.<\/p>\n

Bolivia first had to get past Suriname in Monterrey on Thursday, while Jamaica overcame New Caledonia.<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s only previous World Cup appearance was in Mexico in 1986, where they lost all three group games.<\/p>\n

\"Iraq'sIraq\u2019s players celebrate after winning [Julio Cesar Aguilar\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goals from Ali al-Hamadi and Aymen Hussein send Iraq to their first FIFA World Cup since 1986. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,527,11212,1259,44,561,457,82,13010],"class_list":["post-574751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football","tag-iraq","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}