2026 World Cup: Groups A and B previews and predictions
This year's World Cup is just 10 days away which means now is the time to begin some group previews as your Predictor leagues fill up with players and you begin thinking about your opening score predictions.
In these preview pieces I'll be giving a brief overview of each team (there's a lot of teams this year so there won't always be too much depth), plus some predictions from myself and Hutch on how the group standings may end up looking.
Hopefully these are of use to set the scene a bit, particularly for the nations you may know a bit less about. If you have questions or things you'd like to know more about regarding a specific team, feel free to start a conversation in the comments and I or others will get back to you.
Once we're closer to kick-off, I'll also be doing individual match previews for every single fixture in the tournament to help you with your predictions. The previews will be exclusive to Superbru Premium users and available to read on the predictions pages, so if that's of interest, consider upgrading and supporting us for a couple of months while playing Superbru this summer.
Right then, here's a look at the first two groups.
Home advantage is the main thing to consider in Group A because the Mexican support is going to be *loud* at both Estadio Azteca and Estadio Akron, while the altitude is also something that Mexico are clearly far more used to than their opponents; particularly South Korea and Czechia.
Since returning to the head coach role, Aguirre has 15 wins from 27 games and just 4 defeats. Mexico won the Gold Cup last summer with a 2-1 win over the USA in the final and in the recent March international break they managed draws against strong European opposition in Portugal and Belgium.
Many of Mexico's squad members play their club football in Mexico which should heighten that home advantage further, though in attack they have two centre forwards with useful European experience in Fulham's Raul Jimenez and AC Milan's Santiago Gimenez.
In midfield, keep an eye on 17-year old wonder kid Gilberto Mora and 20-year old Obed Vargas who, after starring in MLS for Seattle Sounders, hasn't looked out of place when given a chance by Atletico Madrid in LaLiga after signing for them in January.
If Bafana are to manage results in this group, it's likely to be through fast counter-attacks down the flanks. South Africa's squad has a solid base through goalkeeper Ronwen Williams (who starred in that 2023 AFCON tournament), centre backs Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Ime Okon, and key midfielder Teboho Mokoena. However, goals might be a problem as chance conversion was a real weakness during qualifying.
Winger Oswin Appollis is perhaps the most likely to create chances when South Africa do get forward in transition, but Bafana are going to need to be much more efficient than they have been in recent matches such as their AFCON exit at the hands of Cameroon back in January. They'll enter each of their group stage fixtures as underdogs but certainly not walkovers.
That play-off drama came during what feels like a bit of a new era for Czechia as 74-year old Miroslav Koubek was only hired as head coach at the start of the year. Wolves defender Ladislav Krejci was then announced as the new Czech captain by Koubek and he played a crucial role in both play-off games.
Czechia are likely to play with wing-backs which will provide an interesting challenge for Mexico and South Africa who are expected to play variations of 4-3-3, while the opening clash against Korea now looks like it might be like-for-like as Korea moved to a 3-4-2-1 in recent fixtures.
Lots of crosses will be played to centre forward Patrik Schick who has had an excellent last couple of seasons with Bayer Leverkusen, and they're going to be a real problem from set-pieces given the aerial ability of Schick, their defenders and West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek.
Korea are coached by Hong Myung-bo who had an impressive 136 caps himself as a defender. This is his second stint as manager having also coached the national team for the 2014 World Cup. Expect Korea to be reasonably comfortable in possession but they'll play the ball forward quickly when they have a chance to, supplying very good finishers in either Son or Hyun-Gyu Oh, or both if Son plays as the left-sided 10 in a likely 3-4-2-1 behind Oh rather than as the 9.
There are some standout players with experience of high-level European football across the South Korea team as Bayern defender Min-Jae Kim marshals the defence, midfielder Kang-In Lee (PSG) is probably the most technically gifted player in the squad and then the aforementioned forwards will also be joined/replaced mid-game by Wolves' Hee-Chan Hwang who has excellent pace which is perhaps most effective when pressing.
Group A is going to be tight, so Korea's opener against Czechia is huge. The winner of that match will be in a great position to put the hosts under real pressure for top spot.
My predicted Group A standings:
American Jesse Marsch is Canada's head coach and his objective is to get them through the group stage for the first time ever at a World Cup finals. This is only Canada's third appearance at a World Cup, after 1986 and 2022. Last time out in Qatar they failed to pick up a point against Belgium, Croatia and Morocco despite some good displays.
Marsch came through the Red Bull school of coaching so implements an intense pressing style of football, as Premier League fans may remember from his time at Leeds United. In attack, several Canada players are perfect for this including Tajon Buchanan (Villarreal), Cyle Larin (Southampton) and Jonathan David (Juventus), while star man Alphonso Davies (Bayern) is one of the fastest players in world football but has been let down by injuries for years; his fitness is going to be a crucial factor in how well Canada can get on this year.
Clearly, the opening fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina isn't going to be easy based on Bosnia's play-off displays. However, if Canada can channel the energy from a Toronto crowd in their first ever World Cup game on home soil and take an early lead with their high-press, a (very possible) win in that first match could see them ride momentum for a little while in this tournament. Results under Marsch have been fairly encouraging, including consecutive wins over co-hosts the USA.
Bosnia's progression to this stage has been well documented - they eliminated Italy on penalties in a play-off final. Like Canada, they'll be playing 4-4-2 this summer, but it's a far more old-school variation of that system with a long and direct approach to their physical centre forwards. Expect defensive solidity and plenty of crosses from both the full-backs and wide midfielders.
Bosnia and Herzegovina don't have the individual technical quality of a squad like group favourites Switzerland, but after overcoming Wales away from home as well as Italy in Zenica, they shouldn't be underestimated. These are patriotic players proudly representing a nation that has been through a lot in the last few decades, and that dogged determination will be tough to beat, particularly since they tend to find a goal as well.
Dzeko has 73 goals in 148 caps for Bosnia, and he'll be supported by fellow striker Ermedin Demirovic who has managed a double-figure goal tally in each of the last 3 Bundesliga seasons for Augsburg and more recently Stuttgart.
Even after being drawn in a group that isn't exactly packed with teams of huge attacking quality, defence is a big concern for Qatar. In qualifying, they conceded 24 goals in 10 games against Iran, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea. A 4th place finish in that initial qualifier group saw them drop into the play-offs where they sneaked through with a 2-1 win over the UAE. Star man Akram Afif assisted both goals in that crucial game, but he's likely to lack support in this tournament.
Personally, I see Qatar as being among the weakest teams in the World Cup. They failed to pick up a point in their home tournament, and though they have an easier group on paper this time around, it's hard to see them improving on foreign soil.
Head coach Murat Yakin has been in charge since 2021 so this a well settled team that's fairly versatile tactically. Switzerland qualified with an unbeaten record while conceding just 2 goals from 6 games against Kosovo, Slovenia and Sweden, and after being drawn into a favourable looking group here, the expectation will be to top Group B and set up a Round of 32 clash against a 3rd-placed side in Vancouver.
In addition to the experience of Yakin who has now taken charge of 58 matches, Switzerland have plenty of seasoned operators in midfield such as Granit Xhaka and Remo Freuler. In attack, Breel Embolo has a strong goal record in recent major tournaments, and he'll have plenty of pace either side of him through Ruben Vargas and Dan Ndoye.
When you also consider that there's now another great Swiss goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel, taking over the gloves from Yann Sommer who had 94 caps, Switzerland look well balanced across the pitch. They'll need to make sure they live up to their favourites tag in Group B, and a 4-1 friendly win over Jordan yesterday looks like good preparation for their opener vs. Qatar.
My predicted Group B standings:
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In these preview pieces I'll be giving a brief overview of each team (there's a lot of teams this year so there won't always be too much depth), plus some predictions from myself and Hutch on how the group standings may end up looking.
Hopefully these are of use to set the scene a bit, particularly for the nations you may know a bit less about. If you have questions or things you'd like to know more about regarding a specific team, feel free to start a conversation in the comments and I or others will get back to you.
Once we're closer to kick-off, I'll also be doing individual match previews for every single fixture in the tournament to help you with your predictions. The previews will be exclusive to Superbru Premium users and available to read on the predictions pages, so if that's of interest, consider upgrading and supporting us for a couple of months while playing Superbru this summer.
Right then, here's a look at the first two groups.
Group A
Beginning on the opening night with co-hosts Mexico facing South Africa, Group A also contains South Korea and Czechia who will face one another in Guadalajara a few hours after that opening match.🇲🇽 Mexico
With a home crowd behind them and Javier Aguirre back in charge for what is his third spell as manager of the Mexico national team, we can expect a more expansive and certainly more intense Mexico in this World Cup than the side that were eliminated on goal difference from the 2022 group stage.Home advantage is the main thing to consider in Group A because the Mexican support is going to be *loud* at both Estadio Azteca and Estadio Akron, while the altitude is also something that Mexico are clearly far more used to than their opponents; particularly South Korea and Czechia.
Since returning to the head coach role, Aguirre has 15 wins from 27 games and just 4 defeats. Mexico won the Gold Cup last summer with a 2-1 win over the USA in the final and in the recent March international break they managed draws against strong European opposition in Portugal and Belgium.
Many of Mexico's squad members play their club football in Mexico which should heighten that home advantage further, though in attack they have two centre forwards with useful European experience in Fulham's Raul Jimenez and AC Milan's Santiago Gimenez.
In midfield, keep an eye on 17-year old wonder kid Gilberto Mora and 20-year old Obed Vargas who, after starring in MLS for Seattle Sounders, hasn't looked out of place when given a chance by Atletico Madrid in LaLiga after signing for them in January.
🇿🇦 South Africa
Appearing at a first World Cup since hosting in 2010, South Africa find themselves in a challenging group and obviously have a particularly difficult opening game. 'Bafana Bafana' are coached by Belgian Hugo Broos who is very well respected after a 3rd place AFCON finish in 2023 and this World Cup qualification.If Bafana are to manage results in this group, it's likely to be through fast counter-attacks down the flanks. South Africa's squad has a solid base through goalkeeper Ronwen Williams (who starred in that 2023 AFCON tournament), centre backs Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Ime Okon, and key midfielder Teboho Mokoena. However, goals might be a problem as chance conversion was a real weakness during qualifying.
Winger Oswin Appollis is perhaps the most likely to create chances when South Africa do get forward in transition, but Bafana are going to need to be much more efficient than they have been in recent matches such as their AFCON exit at the hands of Cameroon back in January. They'll enter each of their group stage fixtures as underdogs but certainly not walkovers.
🇨🇿 Czechia
Czechia haven't always necessarily been known as the most exciting of football nations, but they certainly provided entertainment and drama on the way to qualifying for this World Cup. After finishing behind Croatia in their qualifier group, Czechia came from 0-2 down in a play-off semi-final against the Republic of Ireland to draw 2-2 and win on penalties, then had another 2-2 and penalty shootout win over Denmark to seal this spot in Group A.That play-off drama came during what feels like a bit of a new era for Czechia as 74-year old Miroslav Koubek was only hired as head coach at the start of the year. Wolves defender Ladislav Krejci was then announced as the new Czech captain by Koubek and he played a crucial role in both play-off games.
Czechia are likely to play with wing-backs which will provide an interesting challenge for Mexico and South Africa who are expected to play variations of 4-3-3, while the opening clash against Korea now looks like it might be like-for-like as Korea moved to a 3-4-2-1 in recent fixtures.
Lots of crosses will be played to centre forward Patrik Schick who has had an excellent last couple of seasons with Bayer Leverkusen, and they're going to be a real problem from set-pieces given the aerial ability of Schick, their defenders and West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek.
🇰🇷 South Korea
South Korea went unbeaten on the way to qualifying for this World Cup, albeit against fairly weak opposition, and this will almost certainly be the final World Cup that national icon Heung-min Son plays in. Son, who has 145 caps, has played for LAFC since leaving Tottenham in 2025 but that experience of playing in the US will only be of use in later rounds if they can get through this Mexican-based group.Korea are coached by Hong Myung-bo who had an impressive 136 caps himself as a defender. This is his second stint as manager having also coached the national team for the 2014 World Cup. Expect Korea to be reasonably comfortable in possession but they'll play the ball forward quickly when they have a chance to, supplying very good finishers in either Son or Hyun-Gyu Oh, or both if Son plays as the left-sided 10 in a likely 3-4-2-1 behind Oh rather than as the 9.
There are some standout players with experience of high-level European football across the South Korea team as Bayern defender Min-Jae Kim marshals the defence, midfielder Kang-In Lee (PSG) is probably the most technically gifted player in the squad and then the aforementioned forwards will also be joined/replaced mid-game by Wolves' Hee-Chan Hwang who has excellent pace which is perhaps most effective when pressing.
Group A is going to be tight, so Korea's opener against Czechia is huge. The winner of that match will be in a great position to put the hosts under real pressure for top spot.
My predicted Group A standings:
- Mexico
- South Korea
- Czechia
- South Africa
- Mexico
- Czechia
- South Korea
- South Africa
Group B
Getting underway a day after Group A on Friday 12th June, Group B contains co-hosts Canada. Their first match is in Toronto against Bosnia and Herzegovina who are here instead of 4-time champions Italy, while the other two teams in the group are 2022 hosts Qatar and 1954 hosts Switzerland.🇨🇦 Canada
Canada will of course also benefit from home advantage in this tournament, as we described for Mexico, though they aren't expected to be as good as Mexico, don't have an altitude advantage and are unlikely to have quite such intense support given the lower profile soccer has within the country. Nevertheless, a Canadian home crowd should still benefit the national team hugely in a fairly open looking Group B and there are plenty of exciting players to get behind in the Canada squad.American Jesse Marsch is Canada's head coach and his objective is to get them through the group stage for the first time ever at a World Cup finals. This is only Canada's third appearance at a World Cup, after 1986 and 2022. Last time out in Qatar they failed to pick up a point against Belgium, Croatia and Morocco despite some good displays.
Marsch came through the Red Bull school of coaching so implements an intense pressing style of football, as Premier League fans may remember from his time at Leeds United. In attack, several Canada players are perfect for this including Tajon Buchanan (Villarreal), Cyle Larin (Southampton) and Jonathan David (Juventus), while star man Alphonso Davies (Bayern) is one of the fastest players in world football but has been let down by injuries for years; his fitness is going to be a crucial factor in how well Canada can get on this year.
Clearly, the opening fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina isn't going to be easy based on Bosnia's play-off displays. However, if Canada can channel the energy from a Toronto crowd in their first ever World Cup game on home soil and take an early lead with their high-press, a (very possible) win in that first match could see them ride momentum for a little while in this tournament. Results under Marsch have been fairly encouraging, including consecutive wins over co-hosts the USA.
🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina
This will be Bosnia and Herzegovina's second appearance at a World Cup since independence, having also played at the 2014 finals in Brazil. 12 years ago, they narrowly missed out on progression to the knockout stages, but did win a group game against Iran 3-1. Iconic striker Edin Dzeko was on the scoresheet that day and he'll be leading the line for his country this summer too at the age of 40.Bosnia's progression to this stage has been well documented - they eliminated Italy on penalties in a play-off final. Like Canada, they'll be playing 4-4-2 this summer, but it's a far more old-school variation of that system with a long and direct approach to their physical centre forwards. Expect defensive solidity and plenty of crosses from both the full-backs and wide midfielders.
Bosnia and Herzegovina don't have the individual technical quality of a squad like group favourites Switzerland, but after overcoming Wales away from home as well as Italy in Zenica, they shouldn't be underestimated. These are patriotic players proudly representing a nation that has been through a lot in the last few decades, and that dogged determination will be tough to beat, particularly since they tend to find a goal as well.
Dzeko has 73 goals in 148 caps for Bosnia, and he'll be supported by fellow striker Ermedin Demirovic who has managed a double-figure goal tally in each of the last 3 Bundesliga seasons for Augsburg and more recently Stuttgart.
🇶🇦 Qatar
After hosting the last World Cup, this is now the first ever World Cup that Qatar have earned qualification for meaning it's just their second appearance overall. Since May last year, they've had a big name manager in charge - former Spain, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Wolves and West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui - but things haven't been going particularly well. Lopetegui has won just 2 of his 12 games in charge.Even after being drawn in a group that isn't exactly packed with teams of huge attacking quality, defence is a big concern for Qatar. In qualifying, they conceded 24 goals in 10 games against Iran, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea. A 4th place finish in that initial qualifier group saw them drop into the play-offs where they sneaked through with a 2-1 win over the UAE. Star man Akram Afif assisted both goals in that crucial game, but he's likely to lack support in this tournament.
Personally, I see Qatar as being among the weakest teams in the World Cup. They failed to pick up a point in their home tournament, and though they have an easier group on paper this time around, it's hard to see them improving on foreign soil.
🇨🇭 Switzerland
Switzerland have the highest FIFA ranking of all teams in Group B and should progress comfortably based on the quality they have in their squad. The Swiss have reached the Round of 16 in each of the last 3 World Cups but haven't made the quarter-finals since they hosted the tournament more than 70 years ago, so that's something to aim for after some impressive displays at Euro 2024.Head coach Murat Yakin has been in charge since 2021 so this a well settled team that's fairly versatile tactically. Switzerland qualified with an unbeaten record while conceding just 2 goals from 6 games against Kosovo, Slovenia and Sweden, and after being drawn into a favourable looking group here, the expectation will be to top Group B and set up a Round of 32 clash against a 3rd-placed side in Vancouver.
In addition to the experience of Yakin who has now taken charge of 58 matches, Switzerland have plenty of seasoned operators in midfield such as Granit Xhaka and Remo Freuler. In attack, Breel Embolo has a strong goal record in recent major tournaments, and he'll have plenty of pace either side of him through Ruben Vargas and Dan Ndoye.
When you also consider that there's now another great Swiss goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel, taking over the gloves from Yann Sommer who had 94 caps, Switzerland look well balanced across the pitch. They'll need to make sure they live up to their favourites tag in Group B, and a 4-1 friendly win over Jordan yesterday looks like good preparation for their opener vs. Qatar.
My predicted Group B standings:
- Switzerland
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Canada
- Qatar
- Switzerland
- Canada
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Qatar
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Group B: Switzerland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Canada
In both groups the last team is obvious.