Japan 1st to qualify for 2026 Football World Cup
Japan became the first team to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday March 20, 2025
[Image posted on X by FIFA World Cup Stats]
Tokyo: Japan became the first team to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday March 20, 2025.
Japan clinched the group match as Daichi Kamada and Takefusa Kubo struck in the second half to earn Hajime Moriyasu's side a 2-0 win over Bahrain at Saitama Stadium.
Midfielder Kamada came off the bench to put Japan in front after 66 minutes and Kubo added the second three minutes from time to keep the Samurai Blue in pole position in Group C of Asia's preliminaries, WAM reported citing Reuters.
Japan leads Group C
With Thursday's victory, Japan continues to lead Group C by nine points from second-placed Australia, who overcame an early scare to thrash Indonesia 5-1 in Sydney in Patrick Kluivert's first game in charge of the visitors.
Saudi Arabia host China in the remaining Group C game in Riyadh later on Thursday.
In Group B, South Korea and Oman drew 1-1 at Goyang Stadium.
With this result, South Korea raised their score to 15 points at the top of the group, and Oman's score to 7 points in fourth place.
New Format of Football World Cup
The FIFA 2026 World Cup will be held in new format. The 73rd FIFA Congress changed the Footbal World Cup from 16 groups of three to 12 groups of four.
As per the new football world cup format, the top two and eight best third-placed teams will advance to the round of 32.
The 2026 edition of the World Cup will also be the first to feature 48 teams and three host countries - United States, Mexico and Canada.
According to FIFA 2026 World Cup Calendar, the tournament will take place from June 11 to July 19, 2026 when the 2026 FIFA World Cup final will be played.
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