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We now have the final groups for the 2026 World Cup after last night’s play-off results as Italy will once again be absent from the world’s biggest international tournament.

Despite winning the World Cup four times, second only to Brazil, Italy continue to go through something of a crisis as they’re now missing this competition for the third time in a row after also failing to qualify in 2022 and 2018.

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Remarkably, the last time the Azzuri won a knockout game at the World Cup was their final victory over France all the way back in 2006.

There’ll be a few other big names missing as Robert Lewandowski’s Poland were beaten by Sweden, and the likes of Denmark, Hungary, and Nigeria also miss out.

2026 World Cup groups in full

See below for the full round-up of this summer’s World Cup group stages as newly-qualified Sweden, Bosnia, Czech Republic, and Turkey join the line up…

Group H

 Spain
 Cape Verde
 Saudi Arabia
 Uruguay

Group I

 France
 Senegal
 Iraq
 Norway

Group J

 Argentina
 Algeria
 Austria
 Jordan

Group K

 Portugal
 DR Congo
 Uzbekistan
 Colombia

Group L

 England
 Croatia
 Ghana
 Panama

Best players not at the 2026 World Cup

Lewandowski is unfortunately not going to be at the World Cup this summer, with one of the game’s greatest strikers of the modern era now unlikely to feature at this level again as he approaches his 38th birthday.

With Nigeria not qualifying, Victor Osimhen is also a huge loss in this year’s tournament, with the Galatasaray striker performing at a really high level in recent years and showing he surely belongs at this level.

Hungary also won’t be there, meaning in-form Liverpool star Dominik Szoboszlai gets the summer off, as does his Reds teammate Milos Kerkez.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been a joy to watch for Paris Saint-Germain in recent times, but he won’t be lighting up this World Cup as Georgia failed to qualify.

And then of course, there are so many talented players from this Italian side who won’t be there, most notably Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori, Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali, and big names from Serie A such as Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco, and Moise Kean.

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