The 2026 FIFA World Cup is 986 days away, but some countries are not going to achieve their dream of qualifying for the tournament.
Some confederations won’t start their qualifiers now, but the Asian qualifiers have already kicked off, and there are already teams out of the qualifiers in the first round.
1. Guam
The Asian nation was the first to be eliminated from qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup after losing 3-1 on aggregate to Singapore.
The first loss was away from home, which the Singapore team won 2-1. On October 17, 2023, Guam lost to Singapore for the second leg at home with Shawal Anuar’s 81-minute goal.
2. Maldives
The South Asian country got eliminated from the first round of the World Cup qualifier, losing to Bangladesh on aggregate by 3-2. The first leg was a 1-1 draw in the Maldives.
However, Bangladesh showed their football superiority with a 2-1 win on October 17, 2023.
3. Cambodia
The national team was defeated by Pakistan away from home. Pakistan qualified for the next round of the World Cup qualifiers with a 1-0 aggregate over Cambodia.
4. Mongolia
The East Asia team lost to Afghanistan on a 2-0 aggregate. The first meeting between the two teams happened on October 12, 2023, when Afghanistan defeated Mongolia.
Afghanistan won the game thanks to Jabar Sharza’s 60th-minute goal. However, the second match happened on October 17, 2023, where Afghanistan also won the match with a 1-0 win.
Farshad Noor scored the only goal of the match to assist Afghanistan in proceeding to the next round of the World Cup qualifiers for 2026.
5. Bhutan
Bhutan defeated Hong Kong 2-0 on October 17, 2023, but it was not enough to secure qualification to the next round of the World Cup 2026 qualifiers.
Hong Kong, which defeated Bhutan 4-0 in the first leg of the match on October 12, 2023, qualifies for the next round of the tournament on aggregate.
6. Macau
The Macau national team couldn’t stop Myanmar from qualifying for the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. On October 17, 2023, Macau played a goalless draw with Myanmar in the second leg.
However, Myanmar won the first leg of the match 5-1. The war-torn nation of Myanmar has moved to the second round after an aggregate score of 5-1.
7. Laos
The Asian country could move on to the next round of 2026 World Cup 2026 qualifiers after failing to defeat Nepal at home. The Nepal national team qualified for the next round of the qualifiers with a 1-0 win on October 17, 2023.
8. Brunei
Brunei seem to be the weakest team in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers after losing heavily on a 12-0 aggregate against Indonesia.
It was total dominance on the Indonesian side, who played a perfect game to dismantle the Brunei national team.
9. Timor Leste
The nation couldn’t qualify for the second round after losing on aggregate to Chinese Nipel on a 7-0 aggregate.
10. Sri Lanka
Yemen got to the second round of 2026 World Cup qualifiers after a 1-1 draw against Sri Lanka. The Middle East team qualified for the next one with an aggregate score of 4-1 after defeating Sri Lanka 3-0 in the first leg.
