Cape Verde, Suriname and Co. – these surprises are possible

Who is going to the World Cup?

There could be another sensation in the World Cup qualification

The World Cup qualification is entering the decisive phase. t-online explains who is already qualified – and what surprises there could still be.

At the end of the 2025 international match year, the last tickets for direct participation in the world tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico next summer will be awarded in the World Cup qualification. Especially in Europe, the situation is still confusing before the last matchday of the qualifying groups: only England under national coach Thomas Tuchel has already secured group victory and thus direct qualification.

This makes the “Three Lions” one of a total of 28 teams that have already booked their World Cup tickets. 14 more teams will now be able to celebrate their qualification on the last match day. Who the remaining six participants are will then be decided in the playoffs next year. Some well-known countries like Italy, Poland and Turkey could also be in the playoffs. It’s completely different for the countries that have already qualified: There is at least one absolute surprise there.

The biggest surprise so far came in the qualification of the African Football Association CAF. Cape Verde has already booked its World Cup ticket there and, with almost 525,000 inhabitants, will be the country with the second lowest population after Iceland (almost 405,000 inhabitants) and will take part in a World Cup in 2018. They managed to qualify with a run of five wins in a row, including a win against the favorites from Cameroon.

For the other teams that have qualified so far, the surprises are limited. In addition to Cape Verde, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and South Africa are also taking part in Africa. Most of them are regular guests at world championships. Only South Africa qualified for the first time since the 2010 World Cup, where they hosted.

So far, Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are taking part from the Asian Football Association AFC. Two little surprises: Jordan and Uzbekistan also qualified. South America (Conmebol) is also sending well-known faces to the World Cup with defending champions Argentina, record world champions Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. Otherwise, New Zealand from Oceania and the aforementioned English from Europe as well as the three host nations USA, Canada and Mexico are qualified. They all come from the North and Central American association Concacaf.

Yes! Success for smaller nations is particularly likely this time, especially in the North and Central American qualification, as three large countries from this association have already pre-qualified with the host nations. Three further direct starting places will be awarded to the respective winners of the three qualifying groups.