1 team from Asia (AFC)
Slot source: AFC’s one intercontinental playoff place goes to the winner of the AFC Fifth Round playoff. That playoff is a two-leg tie between:
- United Arab Emirates
- Iraq
Today’s first leg in Abu Dhabi finished
UAE 1–1 Iraq. The second leg is on
18 November 2025 in Basra. The
winner on aggregate (with away-goals not used under current FIFA regs, so extra time and penalties if needed) will be
Asia’s representative in the intercontinental playoff in Mexico in March 2026.
So the AFC slot is currently a straight fight between
UAE and Iraq, perfectly balanced after leg one.
2 teams from CONCACAF
Slot source: In CONCACAF, the intercontinental playoff places go to the
two best runners-up from the Final (Third) Round, which has
three groups of four teams.
- Each group winner qualifies directly for the World Cup.
- The two best second-placed teams across all three groups go to the FIFA intercontinental playoff tournament.
After
4 of 6 matchdays, current tables for the final round look like this (all teams on 4 games played):
Group A
- Suriname – 6 pts, +1 GD
- Panama – 6 pts, +1 GD
- Guatemala – 5 pts, 0 GD
- El Salvador – 3 pts, −2 GD
Group B
- Jamaica – 9 pts, +8 GD
- Curaçao – 8 pts, +3 GD
- Trinidad and Tobago – 5 pts, +1 GD
- Bermuda – 0 pts, −12 GD
Group C
- Honduras – 8 pts, +5 GD
- Costa Rica – 6 pts, +3 GD
- Haiti – 5 pts, 0 GD
- Nicaragua – 1 pt, −8 GD
There are still
two matchdays left (13 and 18 November) with some huge games like Trinidad vs Jamaica, Nicaragua vs Honduras, Haiti vs Costa Rica, Jamaica vs Curaçao, and Costa Rica vs Honduras.
If qualifying stopped right now
Looking only at the
second-placed teams:
- Curaçao (Group B) – 8 pts, +3 GD
- Panama or Suriname (whichever is currently second in Group A) – 6 pts, +1 GD
- Costa Rica (Group C) – 6 pts, +3 GD
On points and goal difference, the
two best runners-up at this moment would be:
- Curaçao – clearly ahead on 8 pts.
- Costa Rica – 6 pts with a better goal difference than the Group A runner-up.
But with two games left,
everything is still fluid: Suriname, Panama, Haiti, and even Trinidad and Tobago could still play their way into those top two runner-up spots depending on results and goal difference.
So in short:
- AFC playoff team: winner of UAE vs Iraq (currently 1–1 after the first leg).
- CONCACAF playoff teams (as of now, on form): Curaçao and Costa Rica are in the strongest runner-up positions, but Suriname or Panama and others are still very much in the mix.
of Italy, but you guys would be able to comment better..
been a joy to see how quickly and effortlessly he’s just come in and established himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet 
