How the 2026 World Cup bracket works

The 2026 tournament uses 12 groups of four teams. Every group winner and runner-up reaches the knockout phase, and the eight best third-place teams join them in a new Round of 32.

Why the third-place teams are complicated

The best third-place teams are not placed into the bracket by simple ranking. Their Round of 32 slots depend on which groups produced the eight qualifying third-place teams, using a pre-published matchup table.

What WorldCupTree does

WorldCupTree lets you rank groups manually, select the eight third-place qualifiers, then fills the knockout tree so you can pick winners through to the final. The result is a clean fan prediction image you can download and share.

Unofficial fan-made World Cup prediction tool. Not affiliated with FIFA.