The Arab teams achieved major victories in the opening of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia and Africa during the month of November 2023.
The Qatari team was the biggest winner among the Arabs, as it crushed the Afghanistan team 8-1, and Almoez Ali scored four “super hat-trick” goals in the match that was held at Khalifa International Stadium.
Results of Arab Asian teams in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers
The Saudi national team defeated its Pakistani guest 4-0 at Al-Fateh Club Stadium, in the first victory achieved by coach Roberto Mancini with “Al-Akhdar”.
The UAE team succeeded in achieving an easy victory over Nepal with the same score, 4-0, while the Sultanate of Oman contented itself with a 3-0 victory over Taipei.
The Iraqi team won 5-1 over the Indonesian team, while the only disappointment came from Kuwait, which was defeated 1-0 by the Indian team.
Jordan tied 1-1 with Tajikistan on the latter's soil, while the Lebanon-Palestine match ended in a goalless draw.
Results of Arab African teams in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers
The Egyptian national team defeated its guest, the Djibouti national team, with six clean goals at Cairo International Stadium, on a night in which the first star was Mohamed Salah, scoring a “super hat-trick.”
As for the Algerian national team, it was able to defeat the Somali national team with a score of 3-1, in a match in which the “Desert Warriors” did not perform as expected.
The Sudanese national team tied with its Togolese counterpart, 1-1.
The Morocco match in the first round of the qualifiers was canceled due to the withdrawal of the Eritrea national team from the competitions, while Tunisia and Libya will play on Friday.
Results of Arab teams’ matches in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers
Lebanon 0 x 0 Palestine
Tajikistan 1 x 1 Jordan
Iraq 5 x 1 Indonesia
Oman 3 x 0 Taipei
UAE 4 x 0 Nepal
Qatar 8 x 1 Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia 4 x 0 Pakistan
Kuwait 0 x 1 India
Syria 1 x 0 North Korea
Egypt 6 x 0 Djibouti
Algeria 3 x 1 Somalia
Sudan 1 x Togo
Qualification system for the 2026 World Cup in Asia and Africa
The Arab Asian teams are currently playing the second round of the World Cup qualifiers, where the teams were divided into 9 groups, each group containing 4 teams, with the first and second places qualifying for the third round.
In this third round, the 18 teams are divided into 3 groups, each group includes 6 teams, with the first two teams from each group qualifying for the World Cup.
As for the teams that ranked third and fourth, they will be divided into two groups in the fourth round, with three teams in each group, and only the two first-place teams will qualify for the World Cup, completing the contract of the 8 Asian teams.
There is half a seat that is decided by the qualification of a team through the fifth round (the runners-up in the fourth round groups play a round-trip match) to the global playoff.
In Africa, the system is much easier, as the continent’s teams are divided into 9 groups with 6 teams in each group, and the leaders qualify directly for the World Cup.
There is half an African seat, where the top 4 second-placed teams compete in a play-off, with one of them qualifying for the global play-off.
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