The 2026 World Cup, to be held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, will feature 48 national teams divided into 12 groups of four teams each. Consequently, more teams will advance to the next stage than in previous editions. In the old format, countries were divided into 8 zones of 4 teams each, with the top two from each group advancing to the round of 16. From there, as in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where the Argentina national team was the winner, the matches until the tournament's champion was decided were played in a direct elimination format. However, due to the larger number of participating teams in the upcoming World Cup, more teams will qualify for the decisive rounds of the tournament. In this way, the requirement that the top two from each group and the eight best third-place teams advance to the next stage will be maintained. Meanwhile, the teams that qualified from the group stage will not advance directly to the round of 16 but will have to overcome the previous round of 16, a single-elimination match.
