World Cup 2026, Groups I, J, K and L Matches Quiz

This was a strong group based on November 2025 world rankings: France 3; Senegal 15; Norway 31; and Iraq 57.

This was France's 17th World Cup appearance since 1930, and they were winners in 1998 and 2018. France had no trouble dispatching its three opponents in the round-robin group stage. It had a 3-1 win over Senegal in its first match, and scored another three (with a clean sheet) against Iraq in its second. It expected a tougher match with Norway, with Manchester City striker Erland Haarling already scoring four goals in two games. However, France soundly defeated Norway, 4-1, to earn first place in Group I with the maximum nine points.

Norway were travelling well with good victories in their first two matches: a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Iraq and then a tougher win, 3-2, over Senegal, a team ranked 19 places above them. A close match was then expected when France were their opponents in the third game.

However, France steamrolled Norway. France were two up in the first 20 before Norway pulled one back. The comeback was short-lived as France potted another in the 32nd minute, then added a fourth and final goal in the second half to win decisively, 4-1.

As there was a maximum of six wins in a group match, and France had three, Norway's two assured them of second place in the group and automatic qualification into the Round of 32.

Highly ranked Senegal was expected to advance to the Round of 32, but it lost its first two matches: 3-1 to France and 3-2 to Norway. However, in its third match, Senegal whitewashed Iraq 5-0, ensuring the Lions of Teranga held down third place. The high score from their last match was important since, if Senegal was going to be one of the eight third-place qualifiers that made it to the next round with anything less than four points, a team needed to have a positive goal difference. Senegal had a +2 GD, which enabled them to scrape into the third-placed qualifiers group, the only team to qualify with just three points.

This was Iraq's second World Cup after being one of only two Asian teams to qualify in 1986. Sadly, they did not win a point in this tournament. Iraq was not able to gain a point in their three matches, losing all three comprehensively: 4-1 to Norway, 3-0 to France and 5-0 to Senegal. Their one moment of glory was in their first match against Norway, where they scored an equaliser before Norway potted another four minutes later, then a further two in the second half.
That elusive World Cup point or win still eluded the Lions of Mesopotamia in 2026.

Argentina, ranked second in the tournament, cruised through the group stage with three wins, gaining the maximum nine points, conceding just a single goal along the way. Lionel Messi scored a hat trick in their first match (and scored six out of Argentina's eight goals in the three matches) against Algeria.

He peppered the back of the net at regular intervals: 17', 60', and 76' for Argentina to win 3-0. They dispatched highly-fancied Austria, 2-0, in their second match, with Messi scoring both goals.

They then soundly defeated Jordan 3-1 to advance easily to the Round of 32.

Austria ultimately defeated Jordan soundly in their first match, 3-1, but the result was not certain until Austria potted a penalty in the twelfth minute of overtime. Austria succumbed 2-0 to the Argentinian juggernaut in their second match.

Their third match was arguably one of the most exciting in the tournament to date. Every time Austria scored, Algeria equalised. The scores were locked at 2-2. When Algeria went ahead 3-2 in the third minute of injury time, it looked, incredibly, that Austria were going to be eliminated, as three points and a negative goal difference were not enough to qualify in third place. However, Austrian striker Kalajdzic scored an equaliser in the sixth minute of injury time for a final score of 3-3. This allowed Austria to finish second in the group with four points and automatically qualify for the Round of 32.

Algeria were beaten comprehensively 3-0 by Argentina in their first match, but came from a goal down to win 2-1 against Jordan in their second match. In their third match against Austria, leading 3-2 in injury time would have meant they would have finished second in their group with six points, but the last-minute goal by Austria meant that the draw caused both teams to finish on four points. Algeria had an inferior goal difference (5-7) to Austria (6-6), so they finished third.

However, all third-placed teams with four points or more qualified for the next round.

Jordan ranked 66 were up against it by playing three much stronger teams in their group. However, while they did not score a match point, they managed to score a goal in each of their matches: A feat only New Zealand could match among the twelve fourth-placed teams.

They lost their first match 3-1 against Austria after equalising 1-1 in the 50th minute; they were the first to score against Algeria, before their opponents kicked two second-half goals to win 2-1. They were no match for Argentina, but they pulled one back in the 55th minute before losing 3-1.

Colombia, ranked 13th, had a comfortable 3-1 win over Uzbekistan in their first group match. In their second match, they had to fight hard to overcome the Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0. In their third match, having already qualified for the next round with six points, were drawn against one of the favourites to win the cup, Portugal.

They played out a 0-0 draw, allowing Colombia to qualify first in Group K with seven points.

In their first game, against the Democratic Republic of Congo, Portugal scored in the sixth minute to take an expected early lead. However, DRC equalised just before halftime, and Portugal could not score again, leaving Portugal shocked; they had only earned a solitary point.

They rallied in their second match against Uzbekistan, scoring in the sixth minute again, then scoring another four at regular intervals to win 5-0. Their scoreless draw against Colombia in their final match pushed them into second place in the group.

They took no solace in that they were the only second-placed team to concede only one goal.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, ranked 46th, made the world sit up and take notice when they drew 1-1 with Portugal in their first match. They fought gallantly against Colombia but lost 1-0 against Colombia. This meant that they had a single point from two matches.

As their final match was held late in the group match schedule, they knew they had to win to reach the minimum four points now needed to qualify for the next round. Their 3-1 win gave them the same number of points as Portugal, but the latter's +4 goal difference was better than the +1 GD of the DRC. Third place with four points was enough for the DRC to qualify for the round of 32.

In fact, the DRC was the highest third-place qualifier .

Uzbekistan could not score a point from their three group matches. They lost 3-1 in their first and third matches against Colombia and DRC, respectively. In their second match, they were no match for Portugal, going down 5-0. They placed fourth in Group J and were eliminated from the competition.

In a highly anticipated first match, fourth-ranked England were pitched against Croatia, ranked tenth. England scored twice through Harry Kane, both times in the first half, with Croatia equalising both times, making the half-time score 2-2. However, England scored two more in the second half to win 4-2. England were expected to beat Ghana, the team ranked fourth in the group, but Ghana fought hard to keep the English out, resulting in a 0-0 result.

However, this was just a hiccup for England as they accounted for Panama 2-0, with Kane scoring his third goal in as many matches. England qualified in first place of Group L with seven points.

After their 4-2 loss to England, Croatia bounced back to win their other two matches, albeit by the smallest margin in both games. They beat Panama 1-0 in their second game with a hard-fought, scoreless first half and a single goal in the second half to take the three points.

In their third match, they scored a goal in the first half, but Ghana, through dogged persistence, equalised after 73 minutes. However, Croatia pulled ahead in the 83rd minute and hung on to win 2-1. Croatia qualified second with six points.

Ghana, at 72, was one of the lowest-ranked teams in the entire tournament, and the draw did not do them any favours placing them in a group with two top-ten-ranked countries. They surprised most when they defeated Panama in their first match with a single goal, late in injury time. By taking a point from England in a scoreless draw, they had four points on board, considered enough to qualify for the next round. Still, they had done enough to qualify from third place in the group.

In fact, they were the third-highest third-place qualifier behind DRC and Sweden.

At one point, Ghana was 1-1 with Croatia in their final match before Croatia scored late in the match to win 2-1.

Panama, ranked at 30, were considered a chance at qualifying for the next round, but no one expected them to lose all three matches, firstly to Ghana, 1-0, then Croatia by the same margin and finally 2-0 to England. They were the only team that did not score a goal in the tournament, but one small modicum of solace was that they only conceded four goals, an achievement not matched by any other fourth-placed team.