Al Balad Overview

Four nations made debuts at the 2026 World Cup, with Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan gracing the grandest stage in international football for the first time. It is the tournament with the most newcomers since 2006 and Cape Verde have achieved the feat of ending a 16-year wait for a debutant to reach the knockout stages, with the African nation to face Lionel Messi's Argentina on Friday.

The group stages of the 2026 World Cup are in the books after a thrilling fortnight of action across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Despite a lack of eye-catching fixtures on paper in the new, expanded format, there has been drama aplenty, with all the big names showing up for their respective countries on football's biggest stage.

Comprehensive match preview of Ivory Coast vs Norway at World Cup 2026. We talk tactics, team news and more ahead of this round of 32 clash in Texas.

Nicolas Pepe rolled back the years with a magnificent individual performance to fire Ivory Coast into the World Cup knockout stage. The experienced attacker netted a historic brace against Curacao to ensure the Elephants progressed beyond the tournament's group stage for the first time in their footballing history.