2026 World Cup: How teams can advance to the knockout rounds - ESPN

The first matchweek of the 2026 World Cup is in the books! But even at this early stage of the tournament, plenty could be decided over the next several days.

The creation of a knockout round of 32, and the eight best third-place teams out of 12 advancing as a result, has made it much harder to project teams' paths through the World Cup. Nonetheless, the format of the group stage and its initial head-to-head tiebreakers mean we will see some teams seal places in the knockout rounds, while others might have their dreams of making it out of the group stage shattered.

According to FIFA, the tiebreakers if two or more teams in the same group are equal on points after the group stage are as follows:

Step one
— Greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned
— Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned
— Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned

Step two (if still equal)
— Superior goal difference in all group matches
— Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches
— Highest team conduct score (players and team officials) relating to the number of yellow and red cards obtained

Step three (if still equal)
— Ranked according to the most recent published edition of the FIFA/Coca‑Cola Men's World Ranking

So here's what's at stake in the next week of action.

— 2026 FIFA World Cup match schedule: Fixtures, results, features

Mexico and South Korea are in strong positions after winning their first matches against South Africa and Czechia, respectively. It sets up an important clash between the group leaders in Matchweek 2, as the winner would qualify for the knockouts rounds.

If Mexico and South Korea draw,