Yasin and Ferdi are heading to the World Cup!

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Sweden and Turkiye qualified for the finals after winning Tuesday's play-offs

Bruce Talbot

2026-04-01T11:00+01:00

Yasin Ayari played his part to help Sweden reach the World Cup finals for the 13th time after a dramatic play-off win over Poland on Tuesday. 📷James Boardman

Five Albion players could face each other at this summer’s World Cup after a dramatic final night of qualifying.

An 88th-minute goal by former Albion striker Viktor Gyökeres sealed Sweden’s 3-2 win over Poland in Stockholm and the Swedes, led by former Albion head coach Graham Potter, be in Group F where they will face Tunisia, Netherlands and Japan. It will be Sweden’s first appearance in the finals since 2018.

Yasin Ayari set up Anthony Elanga to put Sweden in front in the first half but Poland twice drew level before Gyokeres made his dramatic late intervention.

Sweden open their campaign against Tunisia on 14 June in Monterrey before meeting the Netherlands – and Jan Paul van Hecke and Bart Verbruggen - in Houston on the 20th. Their final group match against Kaoru Mitoma’s Japan is five days later in Dallas.

Also heading to North America are Ferdi Kadioglu and Türki̇ye, who beat Kosova 1-0 in Pristina to reach the finals for the first time in 24 years after Kerem Aktürkoğlu scored eight minutes into the second half. Kadioglu played the whole game.

Türki̇ye are in the same section as Diego Gomez’s Paraguay and they face each other in San Francisco on 19 June.

Albion players who have already qualified made an impression in friendlies.

Mitoma scored the only goal as Japan became the first Asian team to beat England with a 1-0 win at Wembley on Tuesday. There was a nice moment at the start of the second half when Mitoma and Jason Steele had a quick exchange.

Ferdi and Türkiye will be at the World Cup after beating 🇽🇰 in Pristina last night! 🙌✨ pic.twitter.com/pJtUzqsgr3
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) April 1, 2026

Diego Gomez scored on his 23rd birthday in Paraguay's friendly against Greece in Piraeus while van Hecke got the last 30 minutes on Tuesday as the Netherlands drew 1-1 against Ecuador in Amsterdam.

Pascal Gross had an hour for Germany on Monday in their 2-1 win over Ghana in Stuttgart where former Albion striker Denis Undav came off the bench to score Germany’s late winner.