2026 World Cup: Groups K and L previews and predictions

We've reached the last of our World Cup group stage previews, as attention turns to the final two groups, K and L.

You can find each of the previous pieces in the series below:

> Groups A and B preview

> Groups C and D preview

> Groups E and F preview

> Groups G and H preview

> Groups I and J preview

After this, I'll be doing a daily piece throughout the World Cup with a quick recap of what's happened and what's coming up, but my individual match previews for each fixture in the tournament will be exclusive to Superbru Premium users.

Group K

There's plenty of intrigue in Group K with Colombia likely to be tough to beat, Uzbekistan on debut, DR Congo riding the wave of their play-off qualification and many tipping group favourites Portugal to go a long way in this tournament..

🇵🇹 Portugal

Given what he's achieved in the game, it makes sense to start with Cristiano Ronaldo who, like Lionel Messi, will be appearing at a record-breaking sixth World Cup finals this summer. Having already won the Euros in 2016 and the UEFA Nations League just last year, Ronaldo will now be absolutely desperate to add a World Cup to his collection in what, you'd think, will be his last attempt.

Portugal certainly have a chance. 5th on the FIFA rankings, Portugal are the current Nations Leagues holders as I say and have an absolutely stacked midfield. As you can see on the graphic below, it's almost laughable how strong their list of midfielders is.

PSG duo Vitinha and Joao Neves surely have to form the base as back-to-back Champions League winners, and Premier League player of the season Bruno Fernandes can play in front of them in the expected 4-2-3-1. But that's before you even get to Bernardo Silva who will likely play off the right and the very capable, slightly more defensive back-ups in Ruben Neves and Samu Costa.



The list of defenders is also very strong, particularly in terms of full backs, so Roberto Martinez certainly has the players to go very deep in this tournament. To me, the question is whether or not Martinez has it in him to guide Portugal beyond the quarter-finals for the first time since 2006.

Portugal's fixture list gives them two fixtures they ought to win before a tough clash with Colombia which may prepare them well for the knockout stage, but Martinez failed to quite get over the line with a similarly talented Belgium squad prior to taking this role. Furthermore, the challenge posed by managing Ronaldo was evident in Portugal's last World Cup campaign, even for Fernando Santos who had enjoyed so much prior success.

🇨🇩 Congo DR

I wrote a bit about Congo DR in this article right after they secured their qualification for this World Cup in an Inter-confederation play-off final vs. Jamaica. That triumph means DRC are the 10th African nation to qualify for this tournament and it's a very exciting time for the country as it's their first appearance at a finals since 1974 when they were still known as Zaire.

Inside the top 50 on the FIFA rankings, DRC won't be pushovers in Group K and there's plenty of Premier League level players in their squad. Though it hasn't been a great season for Yoane Wissa since signing for Newcastle, he's part of a decent front two alongside Cedric Bakambu (Real Betis), Sunderland's Noah Sadiki is going to be key in the middle of the park as he'll likely have plenty of tackling to do, and their likely back four have all played in the PL - Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Chancel Mbemba, Axel Tuanzebe and Arthur Masuaku.

Congo DR's most favourable fixture against Uzbekistan doesn't come until Round 3 so they have two very tough tests first up. Nevertheless, this is a side that is very rarely thrashed and the speed that they have on the counter means all opponents will need to be wary of how many men they commit forward.

Coach Sebastien Desabre has been in charge since March 2023 and during his reign DRC have finished fourth at AFCON 2023 and also had a respectable showing at the AFCON that finished earlier this year, drawing with Senegal in the group stage before a narrow defeat to Algeria in extra time in the Round of 16.

🇺🇿 Uzbekistan

A World Cup debutant, Uzbekistan are the real wildcard and underdog in Group K, albeit with a few familiar faces. They aren't just here because of the expanded format either because they managed a top 2 finish beneath Iran in their AFC qualification group. Uzbekistan lost just once in their 10 qualifiers against Iran, the UAE, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea.

Shortly after qualifying, Uzbekistan opted to get rid of the coach who had overseen things, Timur Kapadze, to get a more glamorous name involved at a time where football is growing fast in the country. Citing a need for a defensive style of play to get results, they have hired Italy's 2006 World Cup winning captain and former Ballon d'Or winner, Fabio Cannavaro.



Cannavaro has won 5 of his 9 games in charge and though both of his pre-tournament friendlies have been defeats, neither the 2-0 loss to Canada nor the 2-1 defeat to the Netherlands were embarrassing. The manager himself has spoken of concerns about Uzbekistan's ability to play with enough pace and athleticism over 90 minutes, but the Uzbeks will definitely be up for the fight in one of their nation's biggest sporting moments.

Uzbekistan have a standout player at each end of the pitch. In attack, striker Eldor Shomurodov is technically still a Roma player but has had a great season in Turkey scoring 22 goals in 34 league appearances for Basaksehir. In defence, Abdukodir Khusanov enjoyed an excellent second half of the season for Manchester City and looks set to become his nation's top player for a long time considering he's still only 22 years of age, but he'll have his work cut out in a backline that's likely to be very busy in a tough group.

🇨🇴 Colombia

Since an incredible display at the 2014 World Cup where Colombia reached the quarter-finals and James Rodriguez was then signed by Real Madrid, things haven't gone quite as well, for James or his nation. Colombia were eliminated in the Round of 16 in 2018, albeit only on penalties against England, but then failed to qualify at all in 2022. However, now that they're back after a decent qualifying campaign and with James Rodriguez back in the fold to captain his country following spells in Mexico and the US for his club football, could we see a return to that 2014 form?

Colombia remain aggressive defensively and have two centre backs who are very good in the air in Davinson Sanchez and Yerry Mina, while there's plenty of steel and tenacity in midfield too through the likes of Jefferson Lerma and Richard Rios. What's interesting is that Colombia are back to looking much more effective in attack. They scored 24 goals in qualifying - only Argentina scored more among the CONMBEOL nations - and plenty of those came from crosses. Luis Diaz (Bayern) is their standout player on the left side, while Jhon Arias or Rodriguez can drift out to the right flank. Then, you've got strong overlapping full-backs too in Daniel Munoz and Johan Mojica.

Jhon Duran is a notable omission from the squad as his turbulent career has taken a few downward turns in recent months, so it will almost certainly be Sporting's Luis Suarez leading the line. Suarez (not that one) has had a fantastic recent campaign in Portugal, with 28 goals and 6 assists in 32 league appearances.

I'm not convinced Colombia will go too far in this World Cup, but they certainly have the ingredients to hurt teams now that they carry such attacking threat to add to their physicality.

My predicted Group K standings:

• Portugal
• Colombia
• Congo DR
• Uzbekistan

Hutch's predicted Group K standings:

• Portugal
• Colombia
• Congo DR
• Uzbekistan

Group L

Finally, we've reached Group L. Two strong European sides, a Ghana team that doesn't look quite as strong as it once did, and Panama who have improved a fair bit from what England fans may remember in 2018.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England

After making very good progress under Gareth Southgate, particularly at the Euros where they've managed back-to-back finals, this is now England's first major tournament under new manager Thomas Tuchel. England haven't made a World Cup final since winning in 1966, but the objective Tuchel has been set after the Three Lions' finals in recent European Championships is clear - win a major tournament.

Tuchel's squad has raised plenty of eyebrows due to the absence of several big names including Trent Alexander-Arnold, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden as well as very in-form players such as Morgan Gibbs-White. To me, this means Tuchel has a very clear idea of his best starting XI, and the remainder of the squad has been designed to complement that (and probably to spare him from constant media questions over whether it'll be Palmer, Foden or Bellingham in the 10 ahead of each game).



England don't tend to batter teams, but they are a very good side who will consistently score goals since Harry Kane is perhaps the best centre forward in world football. Qualifying was a walk in the park because of the opposition they were drawn with, but it's still very impressive to win 8 out of 8 without conceding a goal. Fixture wise at the World Cup, a clash with Croatia is an awkward opener and will bring back bad memories of a missed opportunity in 2018, but I expect England to win the group and to reach the quarter-finals at the very least.

From there, it's all about Tuchel and whether he can win some matches against the 'big guns' which Southgate never quite managed. Personally, as an Englishman, I have a lot of faith in Tuchel after his Champions League win with a Chelsea side that wasn't as good as the Real Madrid and Manchester City teams they beat on the way to winning that trophy, so it will be fascinating to see if he's the man to end the major tournament pain that we have all suffered from for such a long time. Though it's true that Tuchel could have selected more talented players for the wider squad, the first XI is excellent.

🇭🇷 Croatia

As just mentioned, Croatia were the side to eliminate England in the 2018 semi-finals on the way to finishing as runners-up in Russia, and having also finished 3rd in Qatar since then, it's incredible that such a small country have put themselves among the most successful and consistent World Cup sides of the past decade. Manager Zlatko Dalic has been in charge the whole time and plenty of his initial squad have stuck around too, including Ballon d'Or winner Luka Modric.

Croatia's 2022 performance was much less convincing than their 2018 campaign and they famously made the semi-finals despite only spending 46 minutes in the lead across the tournament. However, that speaks to their never-say-die attitude and who's to say they can't go one more time this year? The age of many of their squad members, particularly in midfield and attack, is a concern in the heat, but we've said that for several major tournaments and even Modric (now 40) just isn't slowing down.



Croatia's pre-tournament friendlies have been interesting as they've shown two fairly different ways that they could play. Against Belgium, we saw a 3-4-2-1 with the more youthful and dynamic attacking pairing of Peter Sucic (Inter) and the very talented Martin Baturina (Como) behind striker Petar Musa who plays his domestic football in the MLS for Dallas. Then, against Slovenia, it was the 4-2-3-1 that we're more used to with the experienced forward pairing of Andrej Kramaric in behind Ante Budimir.

So Dalic has options and Croatia should certainly progress from Group L, even if they lose the opener to England (and vice versa). That's because of the strength of these two group favourites but also due to the weaknesses of the other sides in the group..

🇬🇭 Ghana

As we saw in the comments section of the 'Ghana key' graphic we posted on the Superbru Football app a few days ago, most people still think about the 2010 World Cup and that game against Uruguay when they think of the Ghana national team, but the Black Stars haven't come close to a quarter-final since then and that's unlikely to change this year. Their lack of consistency is exemplified by qualifying for this tournament but failing to qualify for the recent AFCON.

Just a few weeks ahead of this tournament, Ghana decided to switch manager and have appointed the very experienced Carlos Queiroz who is perhaps most notable for his time with Real Madrid and Manchester United, but more recently led Iran at the last two World Cups. Considering he's been in charge for just 2 friendlies ahead of this tournament, it's hard to nail down exactly how Ghana will shape up at the World Cup, but their squad is very imbalanced in the sense that they're far stronger in attack than defence.

Jordan Ayew, Inaki Williams and Antoine Semenyo are all strong forwards who will pose a threat throughout the group stage, and that's without Mohammed Kudus who is unavailable with injury, but the defence looks weak and Ghana, at least under the previous manager, left themselves very open when pressing which means they do not want to be falling behind and chasing games in this tournament.

Queiroz will almost certainly have Ghana sitting deeper and then look to use Williams and Semenyo on the counter, but I'm not sure the Black Stars' defence is strong enough, nor has the new manager had enough time to work, to prevent at least two losses in Group L.

🇵🇦 Panama

Last but not least, Panama. This is their second appearance at a World Cup having also qualified in 2018, and in Russia they were also drawn with England as well as Belgium and Tunisia. My personal memory of that England vs. Panama game was that Panama were well out of their depth and essentially just rugby tackling players at corners (though that's quite common in the Premier League nowadays), but we can expect an improved side this year considering they're now as high as 33rd on the FIFA rankings.

Spanish coach Thomas Christiansen took charge in 2020 and he's won 45 of his 93 matches so far. In qualifying, Panama went unbeaten in 6 games against Suriname, Guatemala and El Salvador, and they also managed a 0-1 win over the USA in Los Angeles last year in the CONCACAF Nations League. The year before, they beat the USMNT in the Copa America as well.

Clearly, beating America isn't necessarily the sign of an amazing team, but in the run-up to this tournament Panama have also beaten South Africa away from home and drawn with Bosnia. A 6-2 hammering at the hands of Brazil in the Maracana is perhaps understandable, but that's Panama's only defeat in 5 games so I think they'll at least be competitive in their group matches this year and keep scorelines respectable.

With defeats likely against England and Croatia, the opening Group L match between Ghana and Panama is a huge one for both nations and is likely to represent their only realistic chance of progression to the knockout stage.

My predicted Group L standings:

• England
• Croatia
• Panama
• Ghana

Hutch's predicted Group L standings:

• England
• Croatia
• Ghana
• Panama

Thanks to those of you that stuck with me throughout all these previews! Good luck in our World Cup Predictor and enjoy the football!