{"id":714551,"date":"2026-06-04T13:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714551\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:05:11","slug":"world-cup-2026-what-are-the-key-dates-from-the-opening-match-to-the-final-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714551\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: What are the key dates from the opening match to the final? | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

From must-watch games to the grand finale, here\u2019s a list of all the important dates on the 2026 World Cup schedule.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 4 Jun 20264 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

Block your calendar. The FIFA World Cup 2026<\/a> is here!<\/p>\n

From superstars Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane to young guns such as Lamine Yamal, Arda Guler, Yan Diomande and more, football\u2019s brightest talents will assemble in North America.<\/p>\n

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

As the 39-day tournament kicks off across the United States, Canada and Mexico, Al Jazeera outlines the key dates and matches for you:<\/p>\n

June 11: Mexico vs South Africa \u2013 opening game of the 2026 World Cup in Mexico City
\nJune 12: Canada vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA vs Paraguay \u2013 opening matches of the other cohosts
\nJune 14: Germany vs Curacao \u2013 Curacao become the smallest nation to play at a World Cup
\nJune 15: Spain vs Cape Verde \u2013 Cape Verde make their World Cup debut
\nJune 16: Argentina vs Algeria, Austria vs Jordan \u2013 Argentina begin their title defence, and Lionel Messi starts his sixth World Cup campaign; Jordan play their first World Cup match
\nJune 17: Portugal vs Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uzbekistan vs Colombia \u00a0\u2013 Portugal\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo makes his sixth World Cup appearance; Uzbekistan play at a World Cup for the first time
\nJune 27: Group stage ends
\n\"LionelFrom left, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo are all set to steal the World Cup spotlight again [File: Getty Images]
\nJune 28-July 3: round of 32
\nJuly 4-7: round of 16
\nJuly 9-11: quarterfinals
\nJuly 14-15: semifinals
\nJuly 18: bronze match
\nJuly 19: World Cup final
\nThe best group-stage World Cup matches:<\/p>\n

In order of their dates<\/p>\n

June 13: Brazil vs Morocco (Group C)
\nJune 14: Netherlands vs Japan (Group F)
\nJune 16: France vs Senegal (Group I)
\nJune 17: England vs Croatia (Group L)
\nJune 18: Mexico vs South Korea (Group A)
\nJune 20: Germany vs Ivory Coast (Group E)
\nJune 20: Netherlands vs Sweden (Group F)
\nJune 22: Norway vs Senegal (Group I)
\nJune 22: Argentina vs Austria (Group J)
\nJune 24: South Africa vs South Korea (Group A)
\nJune 25: Japan vs Sweden (Group F)
\nJune 26: Norway vs France (Group I)
\nJune 26: Uruguay vs Spain (Group H)
\nJune 27: Colombia vs Portugal (Group K)
\n\"Brazil'sNeymar is back in Brazil\u2019s squad as they chase what would be a record-extending sixth World Cup [Ricardo Moraes\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

The FIFA World Cup begins on June 11. You can follow the action on Al Jazeera\u2019s dedicated\u00a0World Cup 2026<\/a> page with all the latest news, match build-up and live text commentary and keep up to date with group standings, real-time match results and schedules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From must-watch games to the grand finale, here\u2019s a list of all the important dates on the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,527,799,1072,44,561,457,82,772,1690,13010],"class_list":["post-714551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-mexico","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714551","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=714551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}