The final summer push

 

The World Cup qualifiers saw Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Morocco and Tunisia through to the 2026 finals while several other teams strengthened their positions.

In Africa, Uganda put 4 past their visitors from Mozambique in the second half with a double from Rogers Mato while Angola lost to a single goal at home to Libya and Gambia gained a 3-1 victory in Kenya. Malawi, who defeated Namibia 2-1 in Botswana, could only draw 2-2 with Liberia on their return home with Ayouba Kosiah scoring both goals for the visitors while Guinea held their Algerian hosts to a goalless draw and one goal gave Benin a win against Zimbabwe in the Ivory Coast. In North America, Guatemala were stunned 1-0 at home to El Salvador but earned a 1-1 draw in Panama while El Salvador lost 2-1 at home to Suriname and Costa Rica drew 1-1 in Nicaragua.

I Europe Greece were embarrassed 3-0 by the travelling Danes while Sweden suffered a 2-0 loss in Kosovo who ended the match with 10 players and in a thrilling match Dor Perez scored twice for Israel and Moise Kean netted twice for the visiting Italians who ran out 5-4 winners. Slovakia celebrated a 2-0 home victory over Germany while Northern Ireland were 3-1 winners at 10-man Luxembourg and Poland drew 1-1 in the Netherlands. Mikel Merino scored a hat-trick as Spain ran riot 6-0 in Turkey while Israel cruised 4-0 past Moldova on their travels and the Czech Republic struck twice in Montenegro.