2026 World Cup: Groups E and F previews and predictions

The countdown to the World Cup has now reached 7 days.

Following our first two group stage previews, we're now on to Groups E and F. You can check out the previous previews below.

> Groups A and B preview

> Groups C and D preview

If you're finding these previews useful ahead of making your first picks in our World Cup Predictor game, consider upgrading to Premium so that you also have individual match previews throughout the tournament.

Group E

A group made up of three strong looking sides and one extreme underdog. We'll be starting with Curaçao, who are set for their World Cup debut.

🇨🇼 Curaçao

Curaçao's qualification is something of a fairytale. With a population of ~158,000, they're the smallest ever nation to reach a World Cup. They'll certainly be getting the proper experience at this tournament too, as they've been drawn against some top sides.

Veteran Dutch manager Dick Advocaat is the man that led them to these finals, but he's actually made a surprise return to the team to take charge for the World Cup having originally stepped down in February due to his daughter's health. Following improvements to her condition, Advocaat is back to enjoy the tournament he has led Curaçao to. In qualifying they were unbeaten in their six games against Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda, drawing a crucial final game with Jamaica to seal qualification by finishing a point above Steve McLaren's team.



Squad wise, there aren't too many familiar names for most football fans, though former Manchester United forward Tahith Chong, now at Sheffield United, will be an important outlet on the counter. In midfield, the Bacuna brothers will be key. Leandro captains the side, while Juninho will be looked to for creativity during any possession that Curaçao manage.

Recent friendly defeats against Australia (5-1) and Scotland (4-1) suggest Curaçao aren't going to be able to cope defensively in this tournament. Their opening game against Germany will be a severe test just to keep the scoreline respectable.

🇪🇨 Ecuador

Ecuador are being tipped by quite a few people to go far in this tournament, purely because they're so difficult to score against. In CONMBEOL qualifying, Ecuador conceded just 5 goals in 18 matches, keeping 13 clean sheets.

When you look at their potential back four, it's easy to see why. Centre back pairing Willian Pacho (PSG) and Piero Hincapie (Arsenal) have just competed against one another in the Champions League final, left-back Pervis Estupinan has been playing across LaLiga, the Premier League and Serie A for almost a decade for strong sides, and right-back Angelo Preciado provides useful speed and dynamism. As if that isn't solid enough, they'll be guarded by Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo.

Defence can take you a long way in major tournaments, but if Ecuador are to edge results against some of the big guns, attack is still the puzzle that manager Sebastian Beccacece may need to solve. Ecuador have drawn 11 of his 19 games in charge, many of them 0-0, and only scored 14 goals in their 18 qualifying games. Centre forward Enner Valencia doesn't appear to be slowing down at the age of 36 as he's been in as good a form as he's ever reached on the international stage, but he'll need support.

With less established quality among their forwards in comparison to their defence, it'll be interesting to see if anyone can emerge on the biggest stage. Kendry Paez and Nilson Angulo are young players with links to the Premier League who have been named in the squad, but Flamengo's Gonzalo Plata will likely be the starter playing closest to Valencia.

🇩🇪 Germany

Having finished in the top 3 of every World Cup between 2002 and 2014, and won it in 2014, Germany have since failed to make it out of the group stage in both 2018 and 2022 so there's a big demand for improvement this year. 38-year old Julian Nagelsmann has been in charge since 2023 and had a reasonable Euro 2024 where we saw some good performance before a quarter-final defeat to eventual winners Spain. That loss only came via a Mikel Merino goal right at the end of extra time.

As you'd expect under the former RB Leipzig and Bayern boss, Nagelsmann's Germany will look to get on the front foot and there are a number of high-quality technical forwards who will be given licence to roam. Key man Florian Wirtz has been sensational in his recent Germany appearances despite a difficult first season in England with Liverpool, and as you can see on the squad graphic below, he'll be joined in attack by Bayern's Jamal Musiala (if fully fit) and Arsenal's Kai Havertz.



The big news from the squad announcement was the confirmation that Manuel Neuer is out of international retirement and he'll start behind a strong backline. Nico Schlotterbeck and Jonathan Tah are both excellent centre backs, while Joshua Kimmich is a world class player to have as a right-back/centre midfield hybrid.

After a very kind opening fixture against Curaçao, it will be interesting to see if challenging opposition in the rest of Group E actually helps rather than hinders Germany. If they can come through those matches with positive results, confidence will be high in the German camp and they may well be more battle-hardened than others going into the knockout stage.

🇨🇮 Ivory Coast

The Ivory Coast are the team that will make Group E very interesting in my opinion. You've got Germany as the traditional giant and group favourite, an unbelievably solid Ecuador side, and then the Ivory Coast who could actually challenge them both.

In qualifying, they didn't concede a single goal in 10 matches (albeit against far weaker opposition than Ecuador's impressive defensive record was against), and they're a young side that can be devastating on the counter. This means there's a good chance that the Ivory Coast's matches end up being quite chaotic, as we saw at AFCON where they came from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 2-3 and then lost a quarter-final 3-2 to Egypt despite dominating for large parts.

Emerse Fae is the coach overseeing what looks like it could be the most promising generation since the squad that had the likes of Didier Drogba in and around 2010. Given the strength of opposition in Group E, we can expect a fairly rigid 4-4-2 from the Ivory Coast in defence, but the speed and skill of their wide players and forwards means that when they break, opponents will struggle to defend against them. Amad Diallo (Manchester United), Simon Adingra (Monaco), Evann Guessand (Crystal Palace) and perhaps most notably, Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig) are among the forwards Fae can call upon.

Beating Curaçao comfortably may well be enough to progress regardless, but it's going to be fascinating to see if the Ivorians can trouble Ecuador in their opener.

My predicted Group E standings:

• Germany (on goal diff)
• Ecuador
• Ivory Coast
• Curaçao

Hutch's predicted Group E standings:

• Germany
• Ecuador
• Ivory Coast
• Curaçao

Group F

Similarly to Group E, Group F has some excellent looking match-ups. This is among the most even looking groups in the tournament, with all 4 teams likely to be competitive in each match.

🇯🇵 Japan

Japan are a good quality and very hard-working team that aren't used to losing matches; partly because they regularly play fairly weak nations in AFC qualifying but also because they're a very well coached side made up of very good players. In 2022 they famously won their World Cup group ahead of Spain and Germany after beating them both, but lost on penalties in the Round of 16 against Croatia.

Head coach Hajime Moriyasu has overseen 102 matches since being appointed in August 2018 so this is a manager who has led many of these players throughout their entire international careers. They'll play 3-4-2-1, just as they have in recent friendlies with great success. Japan have won 6 consecutive friendlies, keeping a clean sheet in 5. Standout results include a 3-2 triumph over Brazil and a 0-1 win over England at Wembley.

Squad wise, the absence of Brighton's Kaoru Mitoma due to injury is a blow, but there are capable replacements. Experienced 33-year old Junya Ito will likely occupy one of the spots behind striker Ayase Ueda who has just had a 25-goal season in the Eredivisie for Feyenoord, while the other might be occupied by Take Kubo of Real Sociedad. Kubo, who is an immensely talented dribbler that many Premier League clubs were eyeing a season or two ago, hasn't had the best campaign in terms of both fitness and goal/assist numbers but may now have an opportunity in the absence of Mitoma.

Those wide attackers, who will be encouraged to go 1v1 regularly, will be overlapped by the wing-backs, while there are then several strong options to occupy the midfield two places including Daichi Kamada, Ao Tanaka, Wataru Endo and Kaishu Sano.

As I said, there are no easy games in Group F so the pressure is on from the start and Japan's opener against the Netherlands in Dallas should be a belter between the slight favourites to progress.

🇳🇱 Netherlands

7th on the FIFA rankings, the Netherlands are the strongest squad in Group F on paper and have announced what looks like a very strong squad. Their record at World Cups over the past 30 years has been a real rollercoaster. 4th in 1998, runners-up in 2010 and 3rd in 2014, the Dutch have also failed to qualify in 2002 and 2018 and had a memorable tournament last time out in 2022 where they took eventual winners Argentina all the way to penalties in a fiery quarter-final that saw 18 yellow cards and 1 red.

Ronald Koeman took over from Louis van Gaal after Qatar and the Netherlands made it to the Euro 2024 semi-finals before narrowly losing to England. More recently, we've seen a very solid unbeaten qualifying campaign to get to this World Cup. The Dutch squad doesn't quite have the depth of a tournament favourite like France or Spain, but there's a very strong starting XI including genuine some genuinely world class players.



The Netherlands are spoiled for choice at centre back, because literally all of the defenders on the above squad list play there semi-regularly with the exception of flying right-back Denzel Dumfries who is about to join Real Madrid, but Nathan Ake, Micky van de Ven and Jorrel Hato are also all comfortable at left-back. In midfield, Frenkie de Jong has been back to his best with Barcelona in recent years after some serious injuries, and Tijjani Reijnders will be key despite not playing as much as he'd like at Manchester City.

The forwards list is where I have a few doubts, but then again, you can count on all-time top scorer Memphis Depay (now at Corinthians) to whack his headband on and perform well at a major tournament for the Oranje. Cody Gakpo has also always done well on the international stage and Donyell Malen is coming into this tournament off the back of a sensational loan spell with Roma having struggled to make an impact at Aston Villa.

The Netherlands should be a good watch and I think they could go deep in this tournament.

🇸🇪 Sweden

Sweden only managed to qualify for 1 of the last 4 World Cups, making it to the quarter-finals in 2018, but in contrast to that team and other years gone by, this year's qualification has come with a squad that looks much stronger in attack than it does in defence.

The path Sweden have taken to get here is an unusual and slightly controversial one, as after being absolutely terrible in the qualification group where they failed to win a single game in 6 matches against Switzerland, Kosovo and Slovenia, they knew they had a place in the play-offs regardless via their UEFA Nations League performances. As a result, Graham Potter was hired specifically for those play-offs with the objective of getting the nation to the World Cup, and he's delivered.

Sweden beat Ukraine 1-3 at a neutral venue in Spain thanks to a Viktor Gyokeres hat-trick, and then beat Poland 3-2 at home to seal qualification. Interestingly, particularly for a Potter side, Sweden had less of the ball in both games but have attackers that know how to take a chance. Gyokeres was supported by Newcastle's Anthony Elanga and Celtic's Benjamin Nygren in both games, and he'll now have a £100m+ striker to add to the fold to because Alexander Isak is fit again. It's hard to know exactly how things will shape up with Isak back too, but it's not a bad problem to have, is it?



What might be an issue, is the number of goals Sweden are conceding, particularly when in such a tough group. Their first game is against Tunisia, who they'll need to beat and should have the firepower to do so, because both Japan and the Netherlands will fancy their chances of scoring a few goals against this Sweden defence in the other group games. Of course, as I've just explained, Sweden have the firepower to throw some punches themselves so their games should be a good watch, but they do not look as balanced or complete as Japan or the Netherlands.

🇹🇳 Tunisia

My main feeling when thinking about Tunisia's national side is that they're going to tough to beat but lack any real creativity or quality to score goals themselves, and that's largely what we saw in 2022 and will likely be the case again this summer in a difficult group. In Qatar, Tunisia scored 1 and conceded 1 across their 3 matches, finishing with 4 points. The win was a very notable one over France, though it's worth noting France had already guaranteed a place in the knockouts.

After being knocked out of AFCON in the Round of 16 by Mali on penalties, Tunisia decided to switch managers and Sabri Lamouchi has in charge for just a few months. In the 3 friendlies Lamouchi has been in charge for, there's been a 0-1 win over Haiti, a 0-0 draw with Canada, and a 1-0 defeat to Austria, so the scorelines are very consistent with that 2022 World Cup campaign. Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Rani Khedira (Union Berlin) are the solid Bundesliga base in midfield, while Burnley's Hannibal Mejbri is likely to play in front of them tasked with providing some much needed creativity as the most technically gifted player in the squad.

A friendly against Belgium this weekend will be a good indicator of how ready Tunisia are to face the strong opposition they've been drawn against in Group F, but they'll need to show bravery in their opening game against Sweden which is their best chance of a victory. Tunisia have never previously made it past a group stage at a World Cup and even in this year's expanded format, that feels unlikely to change.

My predicted Group F standings:

• Netherlands
• Japan
• Sweden
• Tunisia

Hutch's predicted Group F standings:

• Netherlands
• Sweden
• Japan
• Tunisia

What are your predictions for these groups?