{"id":73305,"date":"2026-04-01T17:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:41:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:41:44","slug":"iraq-qualify-for-world-cup-after-40-year-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305","title":{"rendered":"Iraq qualify for World Cup after 40-year wait"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iraq qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 after 40 years, defeating Bolivia 2-1 in the inter-confederation playoff at Monterrey Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The decisive moment came in the second half when Aymen Hussein scored the winning goal, sealing Iraq\u2019s place as the 48th and final team to qualify for the tournament set to be held across United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq has been placed in Group I alongside France, Norway and Senegal, while also becoming the ninth team from Asia to secure qualification.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq made an aggressive start to the match, taking the lead in the 10th minute through Ali Al-Hamadi, who scored with a powerful header. Bolivia responded before halftime, as Moises Paniagua found the equaliser to level the score.<\/p>\n<p>In the 53rd minute, Iraq restored their lead through Hussein, and managed to hold on despite late pressure from Bolivia, who earned multiple corners in stoppage time in a bid to force extra time.<\/p>\n<p>The Iraqi defence, however, stood firm to secure a historic victory. It marks Iraq\u2019s return to the World Cup for the first time since their only previous appearance in FIFA World Cup 1986 in Mexico, where they were eliminated in the group stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iraq qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 after 40 years, defeating Bolivia 2-1 in the inter-confederation playoff at Monterrey Stadium. The decisive moment came in the second half when Aymen Hussein scored the winning goal, sealing Iraq\u2019s place as the 48th and final team to qualify for the tournament set to be held across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":73306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,136],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[213],"class_list":{"0":"post-73305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest","8":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Iraq qualify for World Cup after 40-year wait<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iraq qualify for World Cup after 40-year wait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iraq qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 after 40 years, defeating Bolivia 2-1 in the inter-confederation playoff at Monterrey Stadium. The decisive moment came in the second half when Aymen Hussein scored the winning goal, sealing Iraq\u2019s place as the 48th and final team to qualify for the tournament set to be held across [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Urdu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T12:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Iraq-qualify-for-World-Cup-scaled-scaled.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"LORD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"LORD\" \/>\n\t<meta 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The decisive moment came in the second half when Aymen Hussein scored the winning goal, sealing Iraq\u2019s place as the 48th and final team to qualify for the tournament set to be held across [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305","og_site_name":"China Urdu","article_published_time":"2026-04-01T12:41:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Iraq-qualify-for-World-Cup-scaled-scaled.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"LORD","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"LORD","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=73305"},"author":{"name":"LORD","@id":"http:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/b810315e93eecda5b41ac46529f50a14"},"headline":"Iraq qualify for World Cup after 40-year 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