USA coach Mauricio Pochettino's first reaction after seeing the 2026 World Cup opponents, including Romania

• The 2026 World Championship will be held in 3 countries: USA, Mexico and Canada. It will take place between June 11 and July 19. It will be the first tournament in history with 48 teams;

• The World Championship will debut in an expanded format, with 48 teams, the participants being divided into 12 groups of four. From each group, the top two teams, as well as the best eight third-placed teams, will advance, thus forming the 32-team knockout phase;

• The tournament will feature a total of 104 matches over 38 days, making it the longest World Cup in history.

Romania can also be from the European dam Dwho will play the semi-final against Turkey, on March 26, away. The other semi-final is Slovakia – Kosovo. One of the 4, which wins both games, will be in the American group at the final tournament next summer.

Pochettino's reaction after the group draw for the 2026 World Cup

“The reaction… Those are the expectations, right? We'll see where we end up in six months. We recently played Paraguay and Australia and we have very fresh impressions,” said Pochettino, quoted by sportal.bg.

“Then a very strong team from Europe will join us. We have to be optimistic, keep fighting and developing. Now we can only analyze the teams and see what happens in a few months”he added.

“We have to respect all opponents. Nothing will be easy. We know that Paraguay performed very well in the South American qualifiers. Australia, before we played them, had not lost in 12 or 13 games”reminded the Argentinian specialist.

“And of course we'll see what other team joins us. With all due respect, but yes, we think we can go further. But for that we have to have a good performance.” concluded Pochettino.

2026 World Cup groups

• Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, UEFA Play-off D (Denmark, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Ireland)

• Group B: Canada, UEFA Play-off A (Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, Bosnia), Qatar, Switzerland

• Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland

• Group D: USA, Paraguay, Australia, UEFA Play-off C (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, Kosovo)

• Group E: Germany, Curacao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador

• Group F: Netherlands, Japan, UEFA Play-off B (Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Albania), Tunisia

• Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand

• Group H: Spain, Cape Verde Islands, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay

• Group I: France, Senegal, Play-off 2 (Iraq, Bolivia, Suriname), Norway

• Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan

• Group K: Portugal, FIFA Play-off 1 (New Caledonia, DR Congo, Jamaica), Uzbekistan, Colombia

• Group L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama