Ten unforgettable qualifiers in 2025
From Argentina to Iraq via Curaçao and Italy, join us in revisiting some of the year's most memorable matches on the road to FIFA World Cup 2026.
FIFA looks back at ten of the year's most dramatic World Cup qualifiers
Features stunning comebacks from Senegal, Iraq and Republic of Ireland
Incredible Scottish goals feature alongside awesome displays from the likes of Argentina and Norway
At the start of 2025, only the co-hosts were assured of a place at the FIFA World Cup 2026™.
After an intense year of qualifying, 39 nations have added their names, while 22 others have secured play-off spots to keep themselves in the hunt. That preliminary process produced some truly remarkable matches, and here we look back at ten sure to live long in the memory.
25 March
Qualification was on the line for both teams at the Azadi, and for much of the match it seemed that the visitors would get the win they needed. That it ended with IR Iran celebrating a fourth successive World Cup, and not Uzbekistan reaching their first, was down to one man. Mehdi Taremi scored a crucial brace – his first a rocket from the edge of the box, his second a predatory poke from close range – as Team Melli twice came from behind to seal their place.
26 March
The rivalry between these old foes has ebbed and flowed down the years, and this was a spectacular demonstration of where the two stood in March. Argentina, in the words of Julian Alvarez, put on "a show", dismantling their great rivals with a dazzling display – and becoming the first team from South America to qualify in the process.
8 September
For sheer excitement, this one was tough to beat. Italy twice fell behind, then surrendered a 4-2 lead, before a stoppage-time Sandro Tonali strike kept the four-time champions' hopes alive, edging them ahead of Israel on goal difference.
9 September
This was a game that ultimately decided the entire section. Congo DR, 2-0 up and being roared on by a passionate Kinshasa support, ended up losing and being leapfrogged at the top of Group B after a stunning Senegal comeback. The visitors went on to qualify directly, leaving Les Léopards to negotiate the play-offs.
10 September
Duckens Nazon came off the bench to score a spectacular second-half hat-trick – including a bicycle kick – as Haiti came from 2-0 down in this six-goal thriller. The visitors were denied victory by an injury-time leveller but the comeback spurred them to qualify for the first time since 1974 – and set up Duckens to finish as the Concacaf preliminaries' top scorer.
11 October It was a victory that paved the way for this tiny Caribbean island to become the smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup. Livano Comenencia scored a spectacular opener as Curaçao, with a population of little over 150,000, caused a huge and ultimately decisive upset against group favourites Jamaica.
16 November
It took until the 96th minute of their Group F finale for the Irish, who had been winless and rock bottom after three games, to secure a UEFA play-off spot. Troy Parrot completed an incredible comeback in Budapest and rounded off his hat-trick with an impossibly dramatic last-gasp winner as the visitors leapfrogged their heartbroken hosts.
16 November
Norway arrived at the San Siro knowing that only a defeat by nine goals or more would deny them their first World Cup in 28 years. They left the famous Milanese venue having delivered another brutal footballing lesson to their humbled hosts, with the unstoppable Erling Haaland once again the Azzurri's tormentor-in-chief.
18 November
Seventeen minutes of stoppage time had been played when Amir Al-Ammari found the top corner with the coolest and most memorable penalty of the 2026 qualifiers. That flawless spot-kick settled a tense and topsy-turvy AFC fifth-round clash in Iraq's favour, sending the Lions of Mesopotamia to the FIFA Play-Off Tournament and maintaining hopes of a first World Cup in four decades.
18 November Denmark were the better side for much of this remarkable match, and twice hit back to seemingly earn the draw they needed. The Scots, though, prevailed on a night of high drama and emotion thanks to three of the greatest goals in their history - two of them in stoppage time.