France, Senegal in Group I Lead World Cup Rankings 2026
Group I is being treated as the world cup rankings 2026 Group of Death, and it is easy to see why: France, Senegal, Iraq and Norway are all in the same section. The 2026 World Cup begins on Thursday with 48 teams, and the new setup sends the top two in each group forward along with the eight best third-place teams.
France, Senegal, Norway
France sits at the center of the discussion. Leo Collis ranked it second behind Spain in his World Cup power rankings, and he wrote that, “France will be up there when all is said and done. It's just a matter of putting all the pieces in the right place,” a line that fits a side that won the tournament in 2016 and finished runner-up in 2022.
Senegal and Norway give Group I even more weight. Senegal was ranked 15th and Norway 17th in Collis’ rankings, while Group I was described as having the highest average of FIFA ratings. That is the practical reason this draw slot stands out before a ball is kicked.
Kylian Mbappé, Lucas Hernandez
France enters with results that cut both ways. It beat Northern Ireland in a Monday friendly and has won five of its last six games, but one of those 10 recent matches was a 2-1 loss to Ivory Coast on June 4. It also lost 5-4 to Spain in last year's Nations League, and France recently fell from No. 1 to No. 3 in the FIFA world rankings.
Lucas Hernandez added another layer to that profile when he called France’s attack “the best attack in the world.” With Kylian Mbappé in the squad and France already carrying the weight of past tournament results, Group I now looks like the group where the strongest team still has to earn every point.
Group I, Thursday
The format makes the stakes more manageable for some teams and less forgiving for others. With 48 teams in the tournament, the top two sides in each group advance, and so do the eight best third-place teams, which means a single uneven result can still leave room for recovery. Group I has the names and the numbers that can turn that safety net into a fight anyway.
