Italy avoided an upset to beat Northern Ireland and put themselves one win from qualifying for their first World Cup since 2014.
Gennaro Gattuso’s side are the most decorated nation left in the World Cup play-offs, as four-time winners, and now face Bosnia and Herzegovina to book their ticket to this summer’s tournament in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Elsewhere, Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres scored a hat-trick as Sweden beat Ukraine, while Denmark, Poland and the Czech Republic also all went through, as did Kosovo and Turkey — the winners of their match next week will go through to be part of the USMNT’s group at the World Cup.
The Intercontinental play-off semi-finals also take place later on Thursday in Mexico, with the other two spots at the World Cup up for grabs. New Caledonia play Jamaica in Guadalajara, while Bolivia face Suriname in Monterrey.
When are the World Cup play-off finals?
Both the European and Intercontinental play-off finals take place on Tuesday, March 31, at which point all 48 teams competing at the 2026 World Cup will be finalised.
European play-off finals
- Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Italy
- Sweden vs Poland
- Kosovo vs Turkey
- Czech Republic vs Denmark
Intercontinental play-off finals
- DR Congo vs New Caledonia or Jamaica
- Iraq vs Bolivia or Suriname
What happened in the play-off semi-finals?
Convincing? Not entirely. But having missed out on the past two World Cups, all that mattered for Italy was that they won — it took Sandro Tonali an hour to seize the game by the scruff of the neck and fire his side towards progression.
Northern Ireland were pugnacious in the first half, manufacturing half-chances on the break and largely stymying a blunt Italian attack. Though forward Mateo Retegui wasted Italy’s best opportunity of the match soon after half-time, Tonali was on hand moments later to seize on a loose clearing header from Isaac Price.
His half-volley was the game’s decisive moment of class, giving Italy a lead they never seriously looked like ceding.
Sandro Tonali opened the scoring against Northern Ireland (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
Northern Ireland’s challenge gradually deflated — lacking the ability to play through the Italian defence, their looped crosses were easily dealt with.
Moise Kean killed off the game after neatly controlling the ball and skilfully manufacturing space for himself in the area, sending Italy one step closer to their first World Cup in a generation. The last knockout match they won in the competition was the 2006 World Cup final, 20 years ago this summer.
Jacob Whitehead
Czech Republic 2-2 Republic of Ireland (Czech Republic win on penalties)
The Czech Republic came from two goals down in normal time, then came from behind again in a penalty shootout to beat the Republic of Ireland to reach the play-off finals.
Ireland were 2-0 up in the first half, but the home side fought back to force extra time and will now face Denmark for a place at the World Cup.
Early on, Troy Parrott kept his nerve after a long delay, via VAR and complaints from Czech players, to slot home a penalty that gave Ireland the lead, before a calamitous pinball own goal from the Czech Republic sent the travelling Irish fans wild. But an obvious pull on the shirt from Ryan Manning gave the referee an easy decision to award the Czechs a penalty of their own, and Patrik Schick pulled one back. Late in normal time, after sustained pressure from the home side, the Czech Republic equalised through a Ladislav Krejci header to send the game to extra time.
In the further 30 minutes of play, there were no goals, but a concerning-looking injury was suffered by Ireland forward Sammie Szmodics, who was taken off on a stretcher. In the shootout, Alan Browne and Finn Azaz both missed for the Irish as the Czech Republic went through.
Alex Brodie
Turkey 1-0 Romania
Turkey were not especially convincing, but arguably the most talented set of players remaining in these European play-offs are safely through to the next stage, where they will hope to earn a spot in the USA’s group at the World Cup, after beating Romania 1-0 in Istanbul.
The only goal came from Brighton full-back Ferdi Kadioglu in the 53rd minute, a fine run into a gaping hole in the Romanian defence found by a brilliant pass from Real Madrid’s Arda Guler, which he controlled nicely and slotted home.
Ferdi Kadioglu and Arda Guler starred for Turkey (Burak Kara/Getty Images)
It had been tough going until that point: while this Turkish team have some fine attacking talent, they lack a specialist centre-forward to match the likes of Guler and Kenan Yildiz, something proved by their inability to take one of the chances they created in the first half.
They survived a late scare when Nicolae Stanciu hit the inside of the post, but otherwise, Romania didn’t provide much threat. Alas, their 80-year-old coach, Mircea Lucescu, is denied the chance to be the oldest manager in World Cup history.
Nick Miller
Ukraine 1-3 Sweden
A superb hat-trick by Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres saw Graham Potter’s Sweden ease past a committed but limited Ukraine side 3-1 in Tuesday’s play-off in Valencia.
Gyokeres’ opener came after just five minutes when he escaped both Ukraine centre-backs to finish Benjamin Nygren’s cross from close range. Ukraine had much of the ball after that, but struggled to make any clear openings in what was a ‘home’ game for them — due to the war in their country — at the stadium of La Liga club Levante.
Gyokeres’ second came early in the second half when Sweden goalkeeper Kristoffer Nordfeldt fired a long pass forward, which the centre-forward excellently controlled, then carried the ball into the Ukraine penalty area, and finished clinically from 15 yards.
Viktor Gyokeres scores against Ukraine (Alex Caparros – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
The third came when Gyokeres ran completely clear after a defensive mix-up and was taken down by Ukraine goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin for a penalty. Trubin got a hand to the spot kick, but it was firmly struck and nestled in the net.
Ukraine’s consolation came on 89 minutes, when substitute Matviy Ponomarenko headed home for 3-1, but by then their World Cup hopes were already over.
Dermot Corrigan
Wales 1-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina win on penalties)
On a dramatic night in Cardiff, Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated Wales 4-2 on penalties to set up a winner-takes-all game against Italy on Tuesday.
Although Ermedin Demirovic missed Bosnia’s first penalty, Brennan Johnson blazed over for Wales and Neco Williams saw his effort saved. Kerim Alajbegovic converted the winning kick, to the delight of Bosnia’s 3,000 travelling supporters.
There was a horrible sense of deja vu for Wales, who lost in a Euro 2024 play-off penalty shootout against Poland here exactly two years ago to the day.
Wales, however, will rue their failure to build on the lead that Dan James gave them in spectacular style early in the second half.
Running onto a bouncing ball in the inside right channel, James thumped a terrific 25-yard half-volley that flew inside the near post.
James later hit the crossbar and Johnson dragged a presentable chance wide before Bosnia equalised through their captain and talisman Edin Dzeko. Aged 40, Dzeko marked his 147th appearance for his country with his 73rd goal, expertly glancing home a corner.
Cue penalties and, from a Wales point of view, all the heartbreak that comes with it. As for Bosnia, their hopes of reaching their first World Cup finals since 2014 are very much alive.
Stuart James
Poland 2-1 Albania
Poland eventually got the job done in Warsaw. They were 1-0 down at half-time after Arber Hoxha took advantage of a Jan Bednarek mistake, and Albania had a big chance to go two goals up through Nedim Bajrami.
It was a let-off, and one Poland took advantage of. Within 10 minutes, they came back through a Robert Lewandowski header and a rocket from Piotr Zielinski.
Albania were the only possible World Cup debutants in Path B, but instead, Poland chase their 10th World Cup qualification away to Sweden.
Eduardo Tansley
Slovakia 3-4 Kosovo
An extraordinary night in Bratislava. Kosovo went behind twice, fighting back each time and eventually winning 4-3, earning the right to face Turkey next Tuesday, with the opportunity to qualify for a World Cup for the first time.
Slovakia led 1-0 and then 2-1, scoring either side of a stylish curler from Veldin Hodza; that was his first goal for his country.
Kosovo trailed 2-1 at half-time, but it took them just 65 seconds to erase that deficit, after a flowing counter-attack ended with a superb header from Hoffenheim’s Fisnik Asllani. Florent Muslija snuck a free kick in at the near-post — and through a suspect wall — to give the visitors the lead for the first after an hour, before Kreshnik Hajrizi crashed in a rebound to bring the Kosovan subs rushing onto the pitch in celebration.
It might have been premature. David Strelec scrambled a third Slovakian goal in stoppage time, but it was not enough to snatch away a win that a stylish, bold Kosovan performance deserved.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Denmark 4-0 North Macedonia
A wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen performance from the Danes.
The smiles from players and fans were such a contrast to the way it all ended in Hampden from the halfway line against Scotland. The dominant second-half battering of North Macedonia was what the nation needed to set themselves up for a confident shot at the World Cup on Tuesday, as they face the Czech Republic.
Brentford’s Mikkel Damsgaard settled the nerves just after the break, then Lazio’s Gustav Isaksen nailed a double within a minute, before Arsenal’s Christian Norgaard nodded in the fourth. They’ll travel feeling rejuvenated, freer of mind, and with fresher legs.
Adam Leventhal
What are the World Cup play-off finals?
The final six teams at the 2026 World Cup will be determined during March’s international window, with two separate tournaments culminating in the finals on March 31. The World Cup play-off finals will all be one-legged ties and take place across Europe and in Mexico.
Four countries from Europe will qualify via UEFA’s play-off finals and two from the intercontinental play-offs, which featured two teams from Concacaf — the confederation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean — and one each from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the Oceania Football Confederation (AFC) and CONMEBOL — the South American confederation.
The initial 16 countries involved in the European play-offs qualified either via performance in regular World Cup qualifying or the 2024-25 UEFA Nations League. They were split across four pathways and progressed to the final via a one-legged semi-final. The venue for each final was pre-determined at March’s draw, with one team having home advantage. Ukraine are playing their matches in Valencia due to the ongoing war.
The intercontinental play-offs were all played on neutral soil in Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico. These consisted of two semi-finals, with the winners progressing to face DR Congo and Iraq, who were seeded for the draw because they sit higher in the FIFA men’s world rankings, and so automatically qualified for the finals.
