World Cup Qualifying: Türkiye Takes Down Romania; Italy Looks To Advance

By next Tuesday, all 48 spots in the 2026 World Cup – the largest edition in tournament history – will be filled. 

Until then, there's a lot of important soccer happening around the world – including a full slate of games on Thursday to see who'll be advancing in World Cup qualifying.  We're recapping all the day's action.

Reald Madrid's Arda Güler set up Ferdi Kadioglu's goal as Türkiye took another step toward advancing to the World Cup. 

Romania’s elimination means that 80-year-old Mircea Lucescu won’t get a chance to coach at the World Cup for the first time. Lucescu captained Romania at the 1970 World Cup. He previously coached Türkiye.

Nicolae Stanciu hit the post in the second half in Istanbul, but Romania couldn't muster the equalizer. 

"We knew it would be a tough match. Lucescu knows us well and prepared accordingly," Türkiye captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu said. "In the first half, we could have made better runs in behind. In the second half, Ferdi scored with a ball in behind and it became 1-0. From then, it was ours."

Türkiye now awaits the winner of Slovakia vs. Kosovo. That game will be played next Tuesday. The winner will join the USA, Paraguay and Australia in Group D. Those matches will be played in Vancouver (vs. Australia), Santa Clara, Calif. (vs. Paraguay) and Los Angeles (vs. the USA).

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Among the other games to keep tabs on Thursday will be Italy vs. Northern Ireland in Bergamo. It's inexplicable that a country with such a rich soccer heritage and which has won four World Cup titles has not reached soccer's biggest stage since 2014. Surely Italy won't miss yet another tournament, right?

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