World Cup play-offs explained: How Wales, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland can still qualify for tournament

The quest to qualify for the World Cup continues this week for Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the play-offs.

Here's how the World Cup play-offs work...

The World Cup play-offs consist of four 'paths', one for each vacant spot at the finals.

The semi-finals will take place on Thursday and the finals on Tuesday March 31, with kick-off times of 5pm or 7.45pm.

The play-offs feature one-legged semi-finals and then a final.

Every path includes a team from each of four seeding pots, with Pots 1-3 decided by November's FIFA World Rankings, while Pot 4 consists of the four countries qualifying through their Nations League performance.

The winner of the Pot 1 vs Pot 4 semi-final will then face the winner of the Pot 2 vs Pot 3 from their path semi-final for a place in the USA, Canada and Mexico World Cup.

The pots were:

For the first time, 16 European teams will play at the World Cup owing to the 50 per cent increase in the size of the 2026 tournament. Of those, 12 places are reserved for UEFA qualifying group winners, with the other four coming via the play-offs.

The 12 group runners-up will be joined by four teams who finished outside the top two of their respective qualifying groups, who were the 'best performers' in the 2024/25 Nations League.

Here are the final standings from each of the 12 groups:

UEFA ranks Nations League teams first by the number of points won by group winners, from the top tier down to the fourth. More often than not, this means the four additional play-off spots are filled by four of the 14 Nations League group winners.

Forty-two teams have qualified for the 2026 World Cup so far, with a list below: