Group G begins the fifth day of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and this one of the less powerful groups but maybe one the most intriguing.
Obviously Belgium are the heavy favorites to top the group, but the combination likely to be behind them could be just about anything.
Egypt is looking to rebound from a miserable 2018 showing in Russia where they went winless, Iran played a win or go home game against the USMNT four years ago and lost 1-0 to exit the group in third, and New Zealand back in 2010 tied all three games in a group fairly similar to this one.
Why a primer and not a preview? Because this is more of a handy reference guide than it is expert analysis. I did not watch or scout 32 international teams to prepare for the World Cup let alone 48 of them because I enjoy sleep and I am not apologizing.
TV SCHEDULE
Monday, June 15
Match 14: Belgium vs. Egypt, 3 p.m. on Fox (Seattle)
Match 16: Iran vs. New Zealand, 9 p.m. on FS1 (Los Angeles)
Sunday, June 21
Match 38: Belgium vs. Iran, 3 p.m. on FS1 (Los Angeles)
Match 40: New Zealand vs. Egypt, 9 p.m. on FS1 (Vancouver)
Friday, June 26
Match 65: New Zealand vs. Belgium, 11 p.m. on Fox (Vancouver)
Match 66: Egypt vs. Iran, 11 p.m. on FS1 (Seattle)
Jake Catanese
GROUP G TEAM PRIMERS
Author's Notes: FIFA Rankings are from the November 2025 listing at the time of the tournament draw. Players international caps/goals are relatively accurate but may not include the recent warm-up friendlies as research for these articles started weeks ago. Abbreviations next to the country names should be their official Olympic code on the score bug and the Letter/Number is their draw position for the group schedule not their pot from the initial tournament draw. Warm up friendlies in the USA are noted otherwise vs/at indicates true home/away matches.
BELGIUM [BEL/G1]
Head Coach: Rudi Garcia (FRA)
FIFA Ranking: 8
Nickname: Die Roten Teufel (The Red Devils)
Qualification: UEFA (Europe) Group J Winners
Appearance: 15th Best Finish: Third Place (2018)
Roster Breakdown: 3 Domestic, 7 England, 5 France, 5 Italy, 2 Portugal, 2 Spain, 1 Germany, 1 Scotland
Recent Matches: Friendly W at Croatia 2-0, Friendly W vs Tunisia 5-0
Player To Know: MF Youri Tielemans, Aston Villa (ENG), 85 Int’l Caps/13 Int’l Goals – The Red Devils captain is one of my favorite midfielders in the world, capable of playing as a playmaking #10, a holding #6, or an old school box-to-box #8. It is literally unfair that he and Kevin F De Bruyne are allowed to play in the same midfield.
Player To Watch: FW Jeremy Doku, Manchester City (ENG), 43 Int’l Caps/7 Int’l Goals – Yes I know Romelu Lukaku is on this roster, but it was Doku who had the most goals out of the attacking group up front though four of his five goals were from braces against Kazakhstan and Liechtenstein. The Man City winger could be one of the breakout stars of the World Cup.
Tournament Outlook
Belgium followed up their third-place run in Russia eight years ago by getting grouped in Qatar four years ago thanks to the upstart Moroccans and the indomitable Croatians. I don’t remember if that qualified as the “Group of Death” but Group G is basically a fight for second place behind the Red Devils, who should claim all nine points here and be able to rest a few people in their final game against New Zealand to set them up well in the knockouts.
Jake Catanese
EGYPT [EGY/G2]
Head Coach: Hossam Hassan (EGY)
FIFA Ranking: 34
Nickname: The Pharaohs
Qualification: CAF (Africa) Group A Winners
Appearance: 4th Best Finish: Group Stage/First Round (last in 2018)
Roster Breakdown: 17 Domestic, 2 England, 2 Spain, 1 Denmark, 1 France, 1 Qatar, 1 Saudi Arabia, 1 UAE
Recent Matches: Friendly W vs Russia 1-0, Friendly (Cleveland, OH) L vs Brazil 2-1
Player To Know: FW Mohamed Salah, Liverpool (ENG), 116 Int’l Caps/67 Int’l Goals – The superstar’s run at Liverpool may have come to an end, but a chance to get Egypt into the knockout stage for the “first” time (the 1934 WC didn’t have a group stage) could be a capstone on his international career.
Player To Watch: GK Mohamed El Shenawy, Al-Ahly (EGY), 76 Int’l Caps – The long-time Pharaoh netminder was a standout eight years ago in Russia in his two starts despite Egpyt losing all three matches and getting grouped. Similar performances should help Egypt go a lot further in their fourth tournament.
Tournament Outlook
This is a really great draw for Egypt, who were going to be one of the strongest teams out of Pot 3 regardless. The only downside to their schedule is getting Belgium first, which could put some added pressure on them even if I think they’ll be favored in the final two games. If they finish second, they’ll get Group D’s runner-up, which could be the USA, and that would be a tremendous Round of 32 matchup.
Jake Catanese
IRAN [IRN/G3]
Head Coach: Amir Ghalenoei (IRN)
FIFA Ranking: 20
Nickname: Team Melli (National Team)
Qualification: AFC (Asia) Third Round Group A Winners
Appearance: 7th Best Finish: Group Stage (Last in 2022)
Roster Breakdown: 17 Domestic, 5 UAE, 2 Belgium, 1 Greece, 1 Russia
Recent Matches: Friendlies (both in Antalya, Turkey) W vs Gambia 3-1, W vs Mali 2-0
Player To Know/Watch: FW Mehdi Taremi, Olympiacos (GRE), 105 Int’l Caps/60 Int’l Goals – The former Porto player led Iran with five goals in qualifying, helping them top a group ahead of second-place Uzbekistan and eventual later round qualifiers Qatar.
Tournament Outlook
Iran have qualified for six of the last eight tournaments, including the last four with 2026, and have gotten at least one result in every group stage they’ve ever participated in. Regardless of current geopolitics, which I hope doesn’t adversely affect their play, Iran absolutely deserves to be here and can absolutely make the knockout round. But their most likely path through means they must get a result, if not a win, against New Zealand and a result against Egypt to secure a potential second place or strong third place finish.
Jake Catanese
NEW ZEALAND [NZL/G4]
Head Coach: Darren Bazeley (ENG)
FIFA Ranking: 86
,Nickname: All Whites
Qualification: OFC (Oceania) Champions
Appearance: 3rd Best Finish: Group Stage (1982, 2010)
Roster Breakdown: 9 Domestic (AUS/NZL A-League), 8 England/Wales (EPL/Football League), 2 USA/MLS, 2 Scotland, 1 Denmark, 1 France, 1 Norway, 1 Poland, 1 Netherlands
Recent Matches: Friendly (Fort Lauderdale, FL) L vs Haiti 0-4, Friendly (Miami, FL) L vs England 0-1
Player To Know: DF Tim Payne, Wellington Phoenix (NZL/A-League), 51 Int’l Caps/3 Int’l Goals – You probably follow him on social media now, but the former Portland Timbers 2 player has carved out a long career club and country and one of the deserving stalwarts of the Kiwis that deserves a spot on the big stage.
Player To Watch: FW Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest (ENG), 90 Int’l Caps/45 Int’l Goals – Back in 2010, Wood was an emerging wonderkid appearing off the bench in all three of New Zealand’s group games. He made good on that talent with a long career in England’s top two tiers with Leicester, Leeds, Burnley, Newcastle, and Forest and gets to complete the circle of his career back at the World Cup.
Tournament Outlook
New Zealand’s most recent appearance at the World Cup was a legitimately tremendous showing, drawing Slovakia, Italy, and Paraguay in 2010, though the three points were not enough to advance to the knockouts. Their recent form since winning qualification has been somewhere between bad and dreadful, with just one win against Chile back in March and a tie against Norway last year. Yes, you did read that correctly; they got pantsed by Haiti in a warm-up friendly, which feels like a very ominous sign for one of the lowest-ranked teams in the field.
Jake Catanese
GROUP OVERVIEW
This group is very tricky because I'm not sure the third place team is going through. I think there's going to be a handful of ties out of this group, including someone taking points of Belgium, which means unless someone puts up a zero, third place might not have a win to vault them into the knockouts. While I'm not high on New Zealand this time around, I don't think they're outmatched and they have a core of players that will be back in four years and much more capable of being a problem.
I'm leaning Egypt as the second team because they've got better results against better teams over the last year or so, and hopefully they learned some lessons from eight years ago. I can not stress how weird this group could get behind Belgium and how excited I am for it; we've had a lot of great so far in the first group matches, I think we're due for a little weird. We should know a lot more about this group right out of the gate today with Belgium-Egypt and Iran-New Zealand right out of the gate.
Third Place Advancement: Low (Iran)
GROUP PREDICTIONS
- Belgium 2. Egypt 3. Iran 4. New Zealand
