The Romanian national team is already thinking about the qualifying playoff for the World Cup 2026, even though we suffered our second defeat in the qualifiers on Saturday night, losing 1-2 to Austria.
Our luck is called the perfect journey in the Nations League, where we won our Group in League C without dropping a point, a journey that will lead us to the qualifying playoff for the 2026 World Cup, with a probability of over 90 percent.
And now, according to the LIVE rankings made by specialists and artificial intelligence, based on hundreds of result simulations, Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, and Northern Ireland are expected to play in the playoff from the UEFA Nations League.
The teams that finish 2nd in the qualifiers will also reach there, currently occupied by Italy, Ukraine, Turkey, Wales, Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the playoff, the teams will be distributed into 4 value urns. Teams coming from the UEFA Nations League will automatically go into the 4th value urn.
Therefore, if Romania qualifies for the playoff for the 2026 World Cup through the UEFA Nations League, it could face Italy, Ukraine, Turkey, or Wales in the semifinals, heavyweight names against whom Romania would have minimal chances, let's admit it, of qualifying. Moreover, considering it comes from urn 4, Romania would play the single qualifying match away. In the playoff final, the hosts will be drawn by lots.