What to watch in tonight’s World Cup qualifying matches: Portugal will qualify if they win, Norway will advance to the World Cup with one foot
6686 Sports News on November 16 The European Qualifying Tournament of the 2026 World Cup is about to usher in the final round of the group stage tonight. The suspense of the promotion of popular teams such as Portugal, Italy, and Norway will finally be settled one by one. Please follow this article to see what highlights of today’s games are not to be missed~
World European Preliminary: Cristiano Ronaldo is absent, Portugal’s home team will advance if they win at home; Italy’s group number one is only theoretically possible
The World European Preliminary Group F competition will start in the "morning game" at 22:00 tonight, Beijing time. Portugal currently leads the second-placed Hungary team by 2 points and leads by 3 goal differences. In the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo due to suspension due to a penalty card, the team needs to score all 3 points at the home team to ensure that it can advance directly to the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico as the first in the group.
On the other hand, Hungary will have a direct confrontation with Ireland at the home team. Currently, both teams still retain the possibility of qualifying for the World Cup, but they need to hope that Portugal will drop points or even lose tonight, and at the same time, they can win and surpass Portugal on goal difference. Relatively speaking, Hungary, which plays at home and is 1 point ahead of its opponents, currently has a slight advantage. It only needs to remain unbeaten to ensure a place in the play-offs.
Next, the World European Preliminary Group D competition will start in the early morning of Beijing time tomorrow. The French team has already secured the first place in the group to advance to the World Cup. Tonight's match against Azerbaijan, which is at the bottom of the group, will likely become a "training game" without pressure.
In another match in the same group, the Ukrainian team will face Iceland at home. The two teams will compete directly for the second place in the play-offs. Iceland, which has a goal difference advantage, can achieve its goal as long as it remains undefeated.
At the same time, there will be two games in Group K. England's away team will face Albania, and Serbia's home team will face Latvia. However, after the last round of competition, England and Albania have locked in the top two positions in the group. The result of tonight's competition will not have an impact on the group ranking.
However, it is worth mentioning that England has maintained a terrifying record of winning 7 games and conceding zero goals in this World European qualifying group stage. Tonight, they may strive to win again and keep zero opponents in order to continue the record.
At 3:45 am Beijing time tomorrow, Italy will face Norway again at the home team stadium. Norway currently leads Italy by 3 points and has a 17-goal difference advantage, which also means that Italy must win by more than 9 goals to reverse the opponent's situation and advance to the top of the group. This is basically an impossible task. It can be said that Norway is infinitely close to qualifying for the World Cup, while Italy is expected to enter the play-offs for the third consecutive time.
World Africa Preliminary: Nigeria and Democratic Congo compete for intercontinental play-off tickets
In addition to the competition between European teams, the finals of the World Africa Preliminary Play-off will also start at 3:00 am Beijing time tomorrow morning. The finals are a single-round format and will continue to be played at a neutral venue in Morocco. The winner between Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will advance to the intercontinental play-offs and continue to compete with opponents from other continents for qualification to the World Cup.
Historically, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have played against each other three times, with each team recording one win and one draw. However, the Nigerian team, which has many well-known stars, has a lineup worth 290 million euros, which is more than twice the total value of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Key competition preview
16th 22:00 Portugal vs Armenia
16th 22:00 Hungary vs Ireland
17th 1:00 Azerbaijan vs France
17th 1:00 Ukraine vs Iceland
17th 1:00 Albania vs England
17th 3:00 Nigeria vs Democratic Congo
17th 3:45 Italy vs Norway
