Your complete World Cup 2026 guide: Schedule, analysis & new Flashscore features

[p]The tournament kicks off on June 11 in Mexico City and culminates with the final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. For the first time, the World Cup will be hosted by three countries - the USA, Canada, and Mexico. A record 48 teams will participate, meeting in 104 matches.[/p][h2][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/soccer-fifa-world-cup-2026-full-schedule-calendar/IDzk9Epn/"]Tournament schedule and format[/a][/h2][p]The group stage is played from [b]June 11 to June 28[/b], followed by the round of 32 (June 28 – July 3), the round of 16 (July 4–7), the quarter-finals (July 9–12), the semi-finals (July 14–15), the third-place play-off (July 18), and the [b]final on Sunday, July 19[/b].  [/p][p]Teams are drawn into 12 groups of four. The top two from each group plus the eight best third-placed teams advance.[/p][p]The [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/soccer/world/world-cup/"]schedule, group tables, and bracket can be found here[/a].[/p][h2]Follow the biggest stars and your favourite players[/h2][image alt="Follow Player" id="45842c61-eed2-4985-a110-ca481b3ecaca" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="5b469ac2-8384-47c5-9fbd-3b50f4149d88" original-width="1500" original-height="844" /][p]If you use the Flashscore app, you can star your favourite national team and players to receive notifications about goals, assists, cards, or lineups. You can now enable [b]Player News[/b] or [b]Team News[/b] in your settings, so we only send you relevant articles.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/follow-your-favourite-football-stars-and-stay-up-to-date-with-new-player-notifications/bX1BZzYQ/"]Find out how to add favourite players here[/a].[/p][h2]Match Momentum[/h2][p]You can follow every match with the [b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/momentum/W82o7eCa/"]Match Momentum[/a][/b] metric, which displays the course and dynamics of the game in a simple graph. For even better insight into the teams' strengths, we've added FIFA rankings to team profiles and match details.[/p][h2]Analysis, reports, videos[/h2][p]Throughout the tournament, look forward to comprehensive news coverage. We’re preparing [b]on-site reports[/b], video and text analysis before each match, video highlights, audio commentary, interviews, and daily updated online round-ups.[/p][p]All World Cup 2026 news can be found in the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/world-cup/lvUBR5F8CdnS0XT8/"]World Cup section on Flashscore[/a].[/p][h2]Who are the favourites? Check out odds and bonuses  [/h2][p]On the web version of Flashscore, you can see [a href="https://www.flashscore.com/football/world/world-cup/odds/"]the main favourites to win according to bookmakers[/a]. Among the top contenders are Spain, France, England, Brazil, and Argentina.[/p]