Japan and Sweden have both qualified for the Round of 32 after 1-1 draw in Group F clash of FIFA World Cup 2026 on Thursday.
Updated: June 26, 2026, 11:28 AM IST
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Gustaf Lagerbielke (centre) of Sweden jumps to head the ball in their Group F match against Japan at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Photo: IANS)
Japan vs Sweden FIFA World Cup 2026 Group F: Japan have never lost to any European nation in the last 7 years of international football and they kept that record intact with a 1-1 draw in their final Group F match of FIFA World Cup 2026 against Sweden to qualify in second place for the Round of 32 at the AT & T Stadium in Dallas on Thursday.
They now face the daunting prospect of taking on five-time World Cup champions Brazil, who are in top form, in a mouth-watering Round of 32 clash at the NRG Stadium in Houston on Monday. Daizen Maeda gave Japan the lead while Sweden’s Anthony Elanga managed the equaliser six minutes later, ensuring a 1-1 draw and a passage for both teams into the knockouts.
Elanga’s left-footed drive from just outside the penalty box in the 62nd minute was his second goal of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Elanga has scored only three goals in 49 games for Newcastle, but none of them in 32 Premier League matches.
Six minutes earlier, Maeda had latched on to a swift pass from Ritsu Doan with his left foot in the penalty area and easily beat Swedish goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom with his right foot.
WATCH highlights from Japan vs Sweden FIFA World Cup 2026 match HERE…
Japan VS Sweden Highlights. pic.twitter.com/L358M7GjTP
— Football Archives (@Archivesfootbal) June 26, 2026
It was Japan’s 7th goal of the FIFA World Cup 2026 – the country’s most in the entire World Cup ever. It surpassed the six the Japanese scored while reaching the round of 16 in Russia eight years ago. Japan are advancing out of the group stage for the third consecutive World Cup and fifth time in seven editions since first reaching the round of 16 as co-hosts in 2002. The ‘Blue Samurai’ finished second in Group F behind the Netherlands.
“For the good of football in Japan, I think it would be a very good experience. We do believe there’s a chance for us to win. And then we hope that we will be able to move one step further move on to the next stage,” Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu was quoted as saying by AP news agency about facing Brazil.
The Swedes also moved into the knockout round the past four times they’ve qualified for the World Cup going back to 1994 — when they reached the semifinals, when the United States last hosted the World Cup. Sweden will have to wait to find out their opponent in the round of 32 next week.
“We have to probably recover the players first and make sure that physically we’re in a good place for whoever we play. We’ve got to be on our toes in terms of logistics. I would say if you had said to me when we first came that would be the challenge we’d face, I would have absolutely taken it,” Sweden coach Graham Potter said.
Turkey end US unbeaten run with narrow win
Turkey left it to the very last second in their final FIFA World Cup 2026 game to stun co-hosts USMNT 3-2 in their Group D clash at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday. The Turkish side had already been eliminated from the tournament after back-to-back losses but went out with their heads held high as USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino fielded nine new starters in this low-stakes encounter with produced 5 goals.
USMNT have now progressed to the Round of 32 as Group D toppers and will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday.
Auston Trusty opened the scoring early with his first goal for USMNT. But Turkey struck back twice before half-time even as Sebastian Berhalter responded with a cracking strike just minutes into the second half.
In the first three minutes of the game, Trusty brought down a corner from Sebastian Berhalter and found the back of the net in 2 minutes and 13 seconds – the second-fastest goal in USMNT’s World Cup history after Clint Dempsey had scored after 30 seconds against Ghana in 2014.
The star-studded Los Angeles crowd with the likes of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the stands were silenced just after the half-hour mark when Eren Elmali squared for Baris Yilmaz to put Turkiye into the lead.
Meanwhile, Berhalter grabbed a record of his own as he became the first USA player (since 1966) to record both a goal and an assist in a single World Cup match. The goal was also the USMNT’s eighth of FIFA World Cup 2026, once again a record for the most goals scored by the US in a single tournament. They went past their own record of seven set in 1930 and equalled in 2002.
(How to watch and stream FIFA World Cup 2026 in India: Multiple group-stage matches that will take place simultaneously will be aired across Zee5 app and website. Link: https://www.zee5.com/)
