Published On 7/8/2026
European teams continue to impose their strong presence in the 2026 World Cup, after six European teams secured their place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Regarding Europe, France, Spain, Belgium, Norway, England and Switzerland qualified, while the other two continents were represented by Argentina and Morocco, making them the only non-European duo on the list of qualifiers.
Read also
list of 2 itemsend of list
This is the sixth time since the 1986 World Cup that at least six European teams have reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Despite the strong European presence in the 2026 edition, this scenario is not new in the history of the World Cup. In the 2018 World Cup, six European teams reached the quarter-finals: France, Croatia, Belgium, England, Russia and Sweden.
The matter was also repeated in the 2006 edition with Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Ukraine and England. Europe was also present with six teams in the 1998 and 1990 World Cups, while the 1994 edition recorded a higher number with seven European teams reaching the quarter-finals. As for the 2022 World Cup, the number of European teams in the quarter-finals reached only five.
The large European presence in the tournament is also explained by the number of participating teams, as the European Football Association (UEFA) obtained 16 seats in the 2026 World Cup. On the other hand, Africa participated with ten teams, Asia with nine teams, the CONCACAF region with six teams, and South America with six teams, while New Zealand represented the Oceania region.
Among the European teams, only one team left the tournament in the round of 16, which was the Portuguese team, which lost to Spain 1-0 after extra time. Switzerland also only needed to go through extra time and then penalty kicks against Colombia in order to qualify, while the rest of the qualified European teams settled their matches before reaching extra time.
The 2026 World Cup quarter-final numbers confirm the continued European superiority in the final stages of the World Cup, even though the continent did not achieve a new record in the number of its representatives among the eight best teams.
