Who: Bulgaria vs Spain
What: UEFA qualifiers for 2026 FIFA World Cup
Where: Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria
When: Thursday, August 4, at 9:45pm (18:45 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 6:45pm (15:45 GMT) in advance of our live text commentary stream.
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European football turns its focus for the next week to qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the run-in for the nations intensifying dramatically ahead of the global event.
Qualifying on the continent will now start a six-game, 11-week sprint from Thursday to advance to the tournament being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at why this is the opening game of this stage for hosts Bulgaria and 2010 champions Spain.
Why have teams like Spain, Germany, Portugal and France not played any World Cup qualifiers yet?
Among those starting their qualifying program are top-tier teams who played a thrilling set of Nations League games in March and June.
Since the introduction of that tournament in Europe, teams that have progressed to that latter stages of that competition only join the World Cup qualifiers at a later stage.
Portugal were crowned champions as they beat Spain 5-3 on penalties in the 2025 final in June.
Spain had overcome France in the semifinal, while Portugal beat Germany. The rest of the qualifiers for the latter stages of that tournament are also only entering the World Cup qualifiers now.
Who else is in Spain and Bulgaria’s group?
Turkiye and Georgia complete Group E of the UEFA World Cup Qualifiers.
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What is the format for Spain and the teams entering the World Cup qualifiers now?
There are six groups of four which are only now beginning their World Cup qualifying campaigns.
There are a further six groups of five teams which have already completed four qualifying matches to this stage.
The top teams from each of the groups qualify directly for next summer’s World Cup, while the second placed teams enter playoffs in order to progress.
Two teams are eliminated from the reduced four-team groups, while three teams are eliminated from the already under way five-team groups.
What was the World Cup qualifying benefit of playing in the Nations League?
The 12 runners-up from the current groups will be joined in the playoffs, scheduled in March, by four best-placed sides from the Nations League groups that don’t qualify automatically from this stage.
The purpose is to give those sides a bonus chance of qualifying should they run into trouble in the current groups.
Those extra teams could include, remarkably, San Marino, 210th and last of the men’s national teams ranked by FIFA. They are currently bottom of Group H in the qualifiers with four defeats from their four games, but finished top of Group 1 in League D of their last Nations League campaign.
How will the 2026 World Cup playoffs work?
The 16 European playoffs teams will be seeded into four knockout brackets of four teams each.
They play single-game semifinals and finals on March 26 and 31, to decide the four remaining World Cup slots.
The smallest qualifying groups in UEFA since 1989
The extra World Cup entries given by FIFA, and Nations League knockout stage expanded by UEFA, have changed the qualifying formula.
Europe now has its first World Cup qualifying groups of just four teams since those that finished in November 1989, just days after the Berlin Wall fell and reshaped the continent.
High-ranking nations that once had to play in groups of five or six teams across 15 months now have a condensed program playing two games in each of three straight months.
An injury could remove a key player for the entire qualifying program. Germany will not have Jamal Musiala, who sustained a serious leg injury playing for Bayern Munich at the Club World Cup in July.
The format changes again next year. After the 2026 World Cup, the FIFA schedule for men’s national-team games will combine the separate September and October breaks into a four-game block over back-to-back weekends.
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Is Spain’s the toughest group?
European champion Spain’s reward for beating the Netherlands in the Nations League quarterfinal in March was to land in a four-team group with Turkiye and Georgia, two breakout successes at Euro 2024.
Georgia, with star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, was the most dangerous team among third-seeded options in the draw last December. Georgia hosts Turkiye on Thursday and plays at Spain on October 11.
The hardest group in terms of prediction is probably the four-team group of Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia and Kosovo.
Switzerland was an impressive quarterfinalist at Euro 2024 yet must face some of Europe’s most expensive forwards – Slovenia’s Benjamin Sesko, now at Arsenal, and a Sweden attacking line of Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyokeres and Anthony Elanga who were collectively signed for more than $300m this season by, respectively, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle.
This is only the sixth meeting the Europeans – despite the fixture dating back to 1933.
Spain have won four of the encounters while the other match was a 1-1 draw in the group stage at Euro 96 in England.
Legendary Bulgarian forward Hristo Stoichkov gave his side the lead from the penalty spot but Alfonso Perez levelled for Spain.
The first meeting resulted in a 13-0 home win for Spain in a friendly in May of 1933.
What happened the last time Bulgaria played Spain?
This is the first meeting between the countries in more than two decades, with Spain winning the last encounter 1-0 in a friendly in 2002.
Their last competitive meeting was at the France ’98 World Cup, with Spain winning 6-1.
Bulgaria team news
The biggest conundrum for Bulgaria is who to start in goal with Aberdeen’s Dimitar Mitov and Levski Sofia’s Svetoslav Vutsov vying for the gloves.
The home side are set to deploy a five-man defence to negate the attacking threat of Spain.
Spain team news
Barcelona’s Gavi, Paris Saint-Germain’s Fabian Ruiz and Crystal Palace’s Yeremy Pino all miss out due to late injuries.
Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Aleix Garcia and Rayo Vallecano forward Jorge de Frutos have been called into the squad as replacements.
Bulgaria predicted starting lineup
Mitov; Minkov, Dimitrov, Petkov, Nedyalkov, Nurnberger; Despodov, Shopov, Gruev, Milanov;
Spain predicted starting lineup
Simon; Porro, Le Normand, Huijsen, Cucurella; Pedri, Zubimendi, Olmo; Yamal, Williams, Oyarzabal