“We had two goals in the League of Nations. The first is trying to get into the playoffs for the World Cup, as it was during the selection for Euro-2024. The second is to look at football players who played in the youth team and performed at the Olympics. I believe that we coped with both tasks, now we are playing in the playoffs.”
The Ukrainian national team finished in 2nd place in Group B1 of the League of Nations with 8 points, ahead of the Czech Republic (11 points).
The blue-yellow team entered the playoffs of the League of Nations for a ticket to Division A. The opponent of the Rebrova team in March 2025 will be one of the four teams – Belgium, Serbia, Hungary, Scotland.
However, the statement that the Ukrainian national team will qualify for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers through the League of Nations is untrue, as can be understood from Rebrov’s words.
In fact, the Ukrainian national team lost the chance to become one of the four teams that will qualify for the playoffs of the 2026 World Cup due to the League of Nations rating. From group B1, only the Czech team, the winner of the quartet, will have such an opportunity.
Special rights will be given to 14 winners of the League of Nations groups (Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, England, Norway, Wales, Czech Republic, Sweden, Northern Macedonia, Romania, Northern Ireland, Moldova, San Marino). They will have an additional chance to reach the World Cup qualification playoffs thanks to a successful performance in the Nations League.
In order to reach the final round of the World Cup, the Ukrainian national team will either have to win the qualification group, or from the second place they will try to be lucky in the playoffs of the team for the World Cup, where they will have to beat two teams.
After the group stage, 16 teams will compete in the second round of World Cup qualification (playoffs, March 26-31, 2026) – these will be the 12 teams that will take the second place in the groups, plus the top 4 winners of the Nations League groups that will finish outside the top 2 in your group).
The 4 winners of the World Cup playoffs will join the 12 winners of the qualification groups – the UEFA zone will be represented by 16 teams at the 2026 World Cup.
Source: sport.ua