Why Senegal and Iraq haven't been eliminated from the World Cup despite being on zero points

The reason why Iraq and Senegal could still make the World Cup knockout stage despite losing both games has been revealed.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, both Iraq and Senegal suffered a major blow in their hopes of progressing past the 2026 World Cup group stage as they each lost their second match.

Following their 4-1 loss to Norway in their opening fixture, Iraq suffered a similarly one-sided loss in their second fixture, as two goals from Kylian Mbappe and one from Ousmane Dembele sealed a 3-0 loss to France.

Senegal faced France in their opening game and also conceded two to star player Mbappe in a 3-1 loss to the 2018 World Cup winners in their first match before losing 3-2 to Norway, with Erling Haaland also scoring twice against the AFCON winners.

Given the severity of the two losses for both Iraq and Senegal, many would assume that their hopes of making it to the round of 32 would now have been shattered.

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In many of the other World Cup groups, that is exactly the case, with Haiti, Turkey, Tunisia and Jordan all eliminated after losing their first two matches.

But in Group I, this isn't the case as both Senegal and Iraq still have a chance to book their place in the knockout stages on Friday night.

That's because the two struggling sides face each other in their final match of the group stage in a match that could essentially be an extra knockout fixture depending on how results elsewhere go.

How can Senegal and Iraq still qualify for the World Cup knockouts?

For the 2026 World Cup, eight of the 12 teams to finish third in their groups will progress to the last 32.

As per FIFA, the best eight are ranked primarily on the most points obtained in their group.

If two teams are on the same points, then they are ranked on who has the better goal difference from their group games, and if they remain level after that, then most goals scored.

With Senegal and Iraq playing each other in the final matchweek, they have a chance to keep themselves in the running for one of these eight spots with a win, particularly a decisive one, to boost their goal differential, meaning they could take a spot as one of the best third-placed teams.

As it stands, Senegal are heavy favourites to win the match against Iraq, meaning they could yet make it out of the groups.

If they are to progress to the round of 32 it is not certain who they would meet in the opening knockout round, but it would be against one of the group winners from group A, B, D, G, K or group L.

Currently, the teams leading those groups are Mexico (Group A), Canada (Group B), United States (Group D), Egypt (Group G), Colombia and England.