What to expect from New Zealand at 2026 World Cup

New Zealand became just the second team to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup earlier this week, but what can we expect from them on the world’s biggest footballing stage?

How they qualified

Well for NZ, qualification was pretty straightforward. As they are part of Oceania, the level of footballing ability is not the highest, and so the All Whites tend to dominate in most matches they play. With the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, this opened up an automatic qualification spot to Oceania, which New Zealand unsurprisingly swept up, defeating New Caledonia 3-0 on Monday to claim.

NZ’s history at the World Cup

New Zealand have appeared at two World Cups, with the first appearance coming in 1982 where they lost all three matches. Their most recent appearance came in 2010 where they actually finished the tournament unbeaten, but still got eliminated at the group stage, drawing all three of their matches, including a surprising draw against Italy, who even more surprisingly finished bottom of that group, with Paraguay and Slovakia advancing.

The current crop of talent

So who will be representing NZ in their third World Cup appearance? Well the star man is of course Chris Wood. The 33-year-old is second on New Zealand’s all-time top scorer list, just six goals behind Ivan Vicelich. Wood has been incredibly impressive for Nottingham Forest this season, scoring 18 goals in 29 league matches so far and helping them challenge for a place in the Premier League’s top four. Other stars in the NZ squad include Marko Stamenic, who like Wood is contracted to Nottingham Forest, but is currently out on loan at Olympiacos and Liberato Cacace, who plays for Empoli in Serie A after impressing in both New Zealand and Belgium.

Realistic expectations

With Chris Wood up front, there is no question that New Zealand can score goals at the 2026 World Cup, but the squad as a whole isn’t particularly strong, and so they should keep their expectations realistic. They are going to face some tough opposition in North America next summer, much tougher than the countries they come up against at OFC level, and just getting out of the group would be a remarkable achievement for head coach Darren Bazeley and his NZ side.