Sweden is winless in 5 games and still has a play-off spot based on its results in the UEFA Nations League. San Marino is eliminated.
6686 Sports News on November 16th. In the fifth round of World European Preliminary Group B, the Swedish visiting team lost 1-4 to Switzerland, but still locked in the qualification for the play-offs. The knock-on effect is that San Marino will declare in advance that it will miss the 2026 United States, Canada and Mexico World Cup.
According to the relevant rules of the World European Preliminaries, the first place in the 12 groups will directly qualify for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico; the second place in the 12 groups, and the 4 teams with the best results in the UEFA Nations League (as long as they are not among the top two teams in the World Cup preliminaries), a total of 16 teams will enter the play-offs to compete for the remaining 4 World Cup tickets.
According to the current UEFA Nations League team rankings, the order of participation in the play-offs is Wales, Romania, Sweden, Macedonia, Northern Ireland and Moldova. San Marino, who is in Group A of the UEFA Nations League D, has been declared out and will not qualify for the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup.
After losing, Sweden missed the top two spots in the group, but still secured a ticket to the play-offs through the UEFA Nations League results.
In the World European preliminaries, San Marino lost all 7 games, scoring only 1 goal and conceding 32 goals. Now they have avoided the embarrassment of this super fish belly appearing in the play-offs.