The Argentine national team will find out their group stage opponents for the 2026 World Cup this Friday, when the draw takes place in Washington D.C., USA, at the John F. Kennedy Center. Led by Lionel Scaloni, the team will aim to become the second in history to win back-to-back World Cups, after Italy in 1934 and 1938 and Brazil in 1958 and 1962. They will be in Pot 1, which means they will avoid facing the major powerhouses in the group stage. The other three pots contain teams of a lower caliber that would be seen as favorable matchups for Argentina. In Pot 2, the most accessible teams appear to be Iran, Austria, and Australia—the Oceanian side that Argentina defeated 2-1 in the Round of 16 of the last World Cup. Pot 3 includes debutant Uzbekistan (first time as an independent nation following the separation from the Soviet Union), Qatar, which had its first World Cup participation as the host nation last year, and South Africa, which will be making its fourth intercontinental appearance, with the last being in the 2010 World Cup it hosted. Meanwhile, Pot 4 is composed of teams that, for the most part, should not pose a problem for Argentina.
