New Delhi: With Argentina qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup semi-finals after securing a 3-1 victory over Switzerland early Sunday, the tournament has produced a historic lineup, with the world’s top four-ranked teams reaching the semi-finals for the first time.
Argentina, France, Spain and England—the world’s top four-ranked teams before the tournament—have all reached the semi-finals in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is the first time this has happened since FIFA introduced its men’s world rankings in December 1992.
For more than three decades, the FIFA rankings have rarely reflected the World Cup’s final stages.
The clearest example came in 2002, when co-host South Korea, ranked 40th in the world, produced the most improbable semi-final run of the rankings era. Guus Hiddink’s side eliminated Portugal, Italy and Spain before eventually bowing out to Germany in the semi-finals. South Korea remains the lowest-ranked World Cup semi-finalist since FIFA rankings were introduced.
They are joined in an exclusive club of giant-killers by Bulgaria, ranked 29th in 1994; Turkey, ranked 22nd in 2002; Croatia, ranked 20th in 2018; and Morocco, also ranked 22nd, whose historic run in Qatar in 2022 made them the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final.
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Brazil in 2002
The contrast with 2026 could hardly be starker. Instead of a Cinderella story disrupting the established order, the tournament has rewarded sustained excellence. Every team left standing entered the competition among the world’s four highest-ranked sides.
Ironically, history suggests that being the world’s No. 1 team is hardly a guarantee of lifting football’s biggest prize. Only once has the pre-tournament top-ranked nation gone on to win the World Cup: Brazil in 2002, whose attack of Ronaldo Nazario, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho proved unstoppable.
The rankings era also reveals another intriguing pattern. Between 2006 and 2022, the lowest-ranked semi-finalist was consistently placed between 15th and 22nd in the world, averaging 18th across five tournaments. Every World Cup seemed to produce at least one team that defied the odds.
Not this time.
For the first time in the rankings era in 32 years, the World Cup has delivered exactly what the rankings predicted: the four best teams in the world, at least on paper, are also the last four standing.
In the semi-finals, France will be up against Spain, and England will face Argentina.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)