{"id":93609,"date":"2026-04-01T11:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/?p=93609"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:14:34","slug":"iraq-qualify-for-2026-fifa-world-cup-ending-40-year-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/iraq-qualify-for-2026-fifa-world-cup-ending-40-year-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq qualify for 2026 FIFA World Cup, ending 40-year wait"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iraq booked its place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup by defeating Bolivia 2-1 in the intercontinental playoff final on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The Lions of Mesopotamia got off to a fast start as Ali Al Hamadi opened the scoring in the 10th minute. Bolivia fought back before halftime, with Moises Paniagua equalizing in the 38th minute.<\/p>\n<p>After the break, Iraq took control again, and Aymen Hussein\u2019s 53rd-minute strike proved decisive, securing a historic win.<\/p>\n<p>The win capped a 28-month, 21-match qualification campaign, marking Iraq\u2019s return to the World Cup for the first time since 1986.<\/p>\n<p>At the final whistle, celebrations erupted as Iraq secured their spot in Group I, set to face France, Norway, and Senegal in the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Anadolu Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iraq booked its place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup by defeating Bolivia 2-1 in the intercontinental playoff final on Wednesday morning. The Lions of Mesopotamia got off to a fast start as Ali Al Hamadi opened the scoring in the 10th minute. Bolivia fought back before halftime, with Moises Paniagua equalizing in the 38th&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":93610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93611,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93609\/revisions\/93611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}