Europe has finally gotten its qualification campaign for next summer’s FIFA World Cup underway, and the upcoming showdown offers plenty of promise for the continent’s less heralded nations. The 2026 installment of football’s greatest competition will see a major revamp, with 48 teams competing rather than the usual 32. Three of those additional 16 qualifying spots will be given to Europe, and that opens the door for plenty of teams that wouldn’t normally get a look in.
Some of the continent’s unheralded sides find themselves in the midst of mighty World Cup droughts. However, with the increase in number of European nations competing next summer, they could well come to an end. Here are three that will certainly hope that is the case.
Norway
Norway has seen the emergence of a partial golden generation in recent years. Well, perhaps not a generation, but they currently have arguably the two greatest players the country has ever produced in their starting lineup. Manchester City sensation Erling Haaland is perhaps the finest out-and-out striker on the planet at present, while Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard may well be the best playmaker in the world.
But despite their emergencies, the Lions still haven’t managed to qualify for a major tournament even with their superstars in the squad. Their drought spans all the way back to the year 2000, and you have to go two years further back than that for their last appearance on the global stage itself. Even since the emergence of Odegaard and especially Haaland, their fortunes haven’t improved at all.
In qualifying for last year’s UEFA Euro 2024, Norway lost home and away to eventual champions Spain, as well as dropping to a defeat against Scotland in Oslo, a result that saw them finish behind the Tartan Army. In qualifying for the Qatar World Cup, they managed just three wins and ended up finishing behind the Netherlands and Turkey. However, their success in rising to League A of the UEFA Nations League coupled with a favorable World Cup qualifying draw alongside Israel, Estonia, and Moldova – as well as either Germany or Italy – has reignited their hopes.
Online sportsbooks certainly seem to think their fortunes could be about to change, anyway. The latest odds from the popular online crypto betting site Thunderpick Sportsbook had them listed as a 1.18 favorite to win their opening qualifier against the Moldovans. Not only that, but similar sites have them listed as a 151.00 shot to win the tournament outright, ahead of perennial qualifiers such as South Korea and Sweden.
Scotland
Scotland was another side that couldn’t find a way back to a major tournament for love nor money. However, their fortunes have already changed on the continental stage, now it is time to take the Tartan Army global. They ended a 22-year barren spell of their own when they qualified for UEFA Euro 2020 with a penalty shootout victory against Serbia in the qualification playoffs, and they followed up with a second straight trip to the continent in 2024. Now, it’s time to head to the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
The Scots have plenty of stars in their ranks. Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson is one of the finest fullbacks the Premier League has ever seen, while John McGinn will be captaining Aston Villa in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain in the not-too-distant future. Both of them would love nothing more than to lead their beloved Tartan Army to North America next summer.
They have been drawn into a testing group alongside Greece and either Portugal or Denmark. Contests against those will certainly prove to be testing, and it will be a case of three doesn’t go into two when it comes to the top two qualifying spots in the group. Scotland will feel that they have enough about them to find a way past the Greeks though, even if they did just beat the Auld enemy England at Wembley.
Turkey
Back in 2002, Turkey took the world by storm as they finished in third place at the Japan and South Korea-hosted World Cup. Stars such as the former Barcelona duo of Rüştü Reçber and Alpay Özalan, as well as the likes of Hakan Şükür, Yıldıray Baştürk, and Emre Belözoğlu, powered them past the co-hosting Japanese and underdog sensations Senegal before Brazil ultimately had too much for them to handle in the semifinals. Inexplicably, they haven’t ventured out on the global stage since.
It’s a fact made all the more shocking considering that they have featured in all but two of the European Championships since, including the last three on the spin. Now, they will be aiming to put things right by finally qualifying for the World Cup. Talented young stars such as Real Madrid’s Arda Güler and Juventus’ Kenan Yıldız coupled with the experience of captain and talisman Hakan Çalhanoğlu makes the Turks as fearsome as ever in the current qualifying campaign.
They will however be in a group with either Spain or the Netherlands, as well as Georgia, a team that has come on in leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. Providing that they don’t capitulate in true Turkish style, then they should surely be on the plane to North America next summer.
