{"id":525715,"date":"2026-06-30T11:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/525715\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T11:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:40:12","slug":"who-has-the-most-favourable-path-to-the-world-cup-final-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/525715\/","title":{"rendered":"Who has the most favourable path to the World Cup final? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 World Cup<\/a> is the first to intentionally separate the top four seeds and the top four sides have played ball, with Spain (1), Argentina (2), France (3) and England<\/a> (4) all topping their groups and ending up in their expected paths.<\/p>\n

There were few major upsets in the group stage, while the likes of Turkey and Uruguay disappointed, they were not considered major contenders to win the trophy. Portugal finishing in second place instead of Colombia in their group, however, has taken away the possibility of a Messi-Ronaldo clash in the quarter-finals and taken the Portuguese away from Argentina\u2019s side of the draw. Germany and the Netherlands are out after a pulsating day<\/a> of knockout action in the last 32, opening up that side of the draw.<\/p>\n

Who has the most favourable draw of the biggest teams?<\/p>\n

The failures of Turkey, Uruguay and the underwhelming performance of Portugal have all benefited Argentina, who now face Cape Verde and should they win, they will face the winners of Australia and Egypt. In the quarter-finals, their opponents would be Switzerland, Algeria, Colombia or Ghana. The most likely opponent there would be Colombia, who should not be underestimated, but as the Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper said: \u201cNo quarter-finals are easy. But some quarter-finals are easier than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who has the toughest draw?<\/p>\n

France\u2019s potentially tougher route to the final stages was made easier on paper by Paraguay beating Germany. They will play Sweden then, should they win, have Paraguay in the last 16. Morocco or Canada are potential quarter-final opponents, with Morocco looking very impressive so far.<\/p>\n

Portugal have moved into Spain\u2019s side of the draw, although on current form they would not be guaranteed to beat Croatia, who have been excellent in World Cup knockouts in the past two tournaments, reaching the semi-finals and final. Should Spain overcome Austria and potentially their old Iberian rivals, then they would be considerable favourites against USA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium or Senegal. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Martinelli strikes in stoppage time as Brazil break Japan heartsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

What could England\u2019s path to the final be? <\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side face DR Congo in the last 32 and should they win as expected then they could face the hosts Mexico in Estadio Azteca. Mexico have lost only two competitive games there in their history, so it won\u2019t be easy. Then they could play Brazil<\/a> in the quarter-finals, although Ivory Coast or Norway might have something to say about that. Argentina could lie waiting in the semi-finals if they get that far.<\/p>\n

Last 16 potential clashes<\/p>\n

Paraguay v France\/Sweden<\/p>\n

Canada v Morocco<\/p>\n

Portugal\/Ghana v Spain\/Austria<\/p>\n

USA\/Bosnia and Herzegovina v Belgium\/Senegal<\/p>\n

Brazil v Ivory Coast\/Norway<\/p>\n

Mexico\/Ecuador v England\/DR Congo<\/p>\n

Argentina\/Cape Verde v Australia\/Egypt<\/p>\n

Switzerland\/Algeria v Colombia\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 World Cup is the first to intentionally separate the top four seeds and the top four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[213745,11148,2956,61,60,112,4018],"class_list":["post-525715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-brazil-football-team","tag-england-football-team","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}