International Break!!

After 4 long months of mundane domestic club football, the Internationals are BACK!!! It is rather a complicated mix of competitions, especially in Europe...

OFC World Cup Qualifiers
A World Cup place is up for grabs as the semi finals and final take place in the Oceanic region. Both semis and the final are one off games played in Wellington.
New Caledonia vs Tahiti
New Zealand vs Fiji
will be played in the early hours of Friday, with the final on Monday.
The winner of the final will qualify directly to WC26, with the losing finalist proceeding to the Inter-Continental Play-Offs.

CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers
Matchdays 13 and 14 of 18, played Friday night and Tuesday night. The top 6 all qualify directly, while 7th go into the Inter-Continental play-offs.
Matchday 13 finds 2nd and 1st meeting, with Uruguay vs Argentina. With a 12 point cushion over 7th, Argentina (25pts) could very well seal qualification this break. Uruguay (20) are 5 points off the top spot, 7 above 7th - so if results go their way they could all but qualify in this period.
Despite a 3 point deduction, Ecuador are 3rd with 19 points and face 8th placed Venezuela in matchday 13. Venezuela are the only one of the 10 South American teams never to qualify for a World Cup, but after a good start they find themselves 5 points off 6th.
Brazil vs Colombia finds a stuttering Brazil side in 5th, a place and a point behind their MD13 guests. 2 draws last time means the hosts have only won 5 of their 12 games but have a 5 point cushion over 7th.
Paraguay vs Chile and Peru vs Bolivia complete MD13. Paraguay hold that 6th place, 4 points clear of 7th. Bolivia are 7th on 13 points, a point clear of Venezuela but 4 off Paraguay. Chile and Peru are the bottom 2 on 9 and 7 points - and time is running out!

MD14s big game is Argentina vs Brazil. Would be a great way for the Argies to seal the Q. Other games are Bolivia vs Uruguay, Colombia vs Paraguay, Venezuela vs Peru and Chile vs Ecuador

This could be a decisive week for the South American nations, with potentially 4 or 5 places at WC26 confirmed.

AFC World Cup Qualifying
It is the back end of Round 3 in Asia. There are 3 groups of 6 nations, with the top 2 qualifying for WC26 and the next 2 going on to a fourth round. There are 4 games left in round 3 with 2 this break and 2 more in June.

Iran can book their place in Group A with wins over United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. They are currently 6 points ahead of 3rd - which happens to be the UAE, and 3 ahead of second placed Uzbekistan.
The Uzbeki's first host Kyrgyzstan - who are desperate for a win to hang on to hopes of 4th round. Uzbekistan could open a 6 point gap over 3rd if they and Iran win. UAE go to North Korea in their second game.
Qatar still have feint hopes of top 2 - 6 points behind 2nd - and with the bottom 2 of Kyrgyztan and North Korea this week they will hope to put themselves right in the mix ahead of Junes final games.

South Korea lead the way in Group B, with a 5 point gap to 3rd. They play 4th placed Oman first, then host 3rd placed Jordan in a game that could seal qualification.
Iraq are second and should be confident of 6 points from bottom 2 Palestine and Kuwait
3rd and 4th Jordan and Oman play Palestine and Kuwait respectively in their other fixture.

Japan are the standout team in group C, but below them is a very tight battle. Japan have 16 points, and should qualify this break with games against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Australia have 7 points in second, and play Indonesia and China.
The other 4 teams all have 6 points. Saudi Arabia host China before the trip to Japan, while Indonesia vs Bahrain completes the fixture list.


CONCACAF Nations League 24 25
World Cup qualifying takes a back seat in Northern America, with the completion of their Nations League this break. In the semi finals we have Canada vs Mexico and United States of America vs Panama on Thursday night. The winners meet in Sundays final, with a 3rd place play-off also played. All games are played in LA.


UEFA Nations League
It is Quarter Final time in the Nations League - and 2 legged ties for League A nations.
Netherlands vs Spain
Croatia vs France
Denmark vs Portugal
Italy vs Germany
with the first leg on Thursday and the return leg on Sunday. The winners go into the single legged semi final in June, with the final days later.

There are also promotion/relegation play-offs. Scotland face Greece for their League A place. Also meeting in League A vs B are Turkey vs Hungary, Ukraine vs Belgium and Austria vs Serbia
The Republic of Ireland are in League B vs C promotion/relegation play-offs against Bulgaria. Also fighting it out are Kosovo vs Iceland, Armenia vs Georgia and Slovakia vs Slovenia
League C vs League D is Gibraltar vs Latvia and Malta vs Luxembourg

UEFA World Cup Qualifiers
The Nations League quarters don't just determine who plays in the semi finals but also the groups each team goes into. Scotland await the loser of Portugal vs Denmark, while Ireland get the winner, for instance. It does mean only half of the WCQ groups begin this break.
England are in Group K and do play this week - Albania first up on Friday in arguably the second hardest fixture. They then welcome Latvia to Wembley. With 2 home fixtures to start the campaign England are expected to rack up 6 points with some ease. Their biggest challengers could be Serbia, who must wait until June to begin their campaign. Andorra face Latvia and Albania to complete the opening fixtures.

Wales host Kazakhstan in their opener on Saturday, before heading to North Macedonia on Tuesday. Belgium are the favourites in this group, and are in Nations League duty so a chance for Wales to put down a marker in what look like critical ties in the group.

Northern Ireland await the winner of Germany and Italy to complete their group, which doesn't start until September.


CAF World Cup Qualifying
We are getting to the half way stage of Africa's WCQ first round. There are 9 groups, with the group winner qualifying for WC26 and the best 4 runners up going onto round 2.
One of the big games of the week is Sudan vs Senegal. Sudan are top, 2 points clear of their opponents in Group B.
Nigeria are one of the big teams currently struggling. They only have 3 points from their opening 4 games, and sit 4 points behind Rwanda, South Africa and Benin in Group C. Nigeria face Rwanda first and then the only side currently below them, Zimbabwe. You feel they have to win both.




We will end this break knowing one nation who will definitely will be joining the US, Canada and Mexico at next years World Cup. It could be a few more too. Exciting times.