France will have Ukraine or the Czech Republic as its main opponent in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, the draw for which for the Europe zone was made on Friday in Zurich at the headquarters of the International Football Federation (Fifa).
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If they win their Nations League quarter-final against Croatia on March 20 and 23, the Blues will be in a group of four with Ukraine, if they lose, they will be in a group of five with the Czech Republic .
In Group D with four teams, the Tricolores would also face Iceland and Azerbaijan in addition to the Ukrainians.
In Group L with five teams, they would meet Montenegro for the first time in their history, the Faroe Islands and Gibraltar in addition to the Czechs.
To qualify for his seventh final phase as coach, Didier Deschamps did not inherit the toughest potential opponents from the second hat of the draw, where France, finalist of the World Cup 2022 and semi-finalist of Euro 2024, was seeded.
The intermingling of the calendars of the League of Nations and qualifications for the World Cup resulted in this complex draw.
On the road to Worldwide in the United States, Canada and Mexico (June 11 – July 19, 2026), the teams qualified for the “Final Four” of the Nations League in June 2025 will find themselves in one of six groups of four.
In these groups, matches will be played in September, October and November 2025.
The losers of the quarter-finals of the League of Nations will be placed either in a group of four or, like the loser of France-Croatia, in one of the six groups of five, which will begin in June.
The first of each of the twelve European groups will be directly qualified, the second will enter a complex process of play-offs, joined by four teams drafted thanks to their good results in the Nations League.