Türkiye’s national football team qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday with a 1–0 win over Kosovo in the UEFA play-off final at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina, ending a 24-year absence from football’s biggest stage. The decisive goal came from Kerem Aktürkoğlu in the 53rd minute: after a scuffed shot by Orkun Kökçü, the ball fell to him in the box and he finished from close range.
The result sends Türkiye to the tournament for the first time since the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where the team finished a remarkable third. Türkiye has been drawn in Group D alongside co-hosts the United States, Australia and Paraguay. Türkiye’s match against the US men’s national team is scheduled for 25 June at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
A tense night in Pristina
The match, refereed by England’s Michael Oliver, was a close, high-pressure contest. Türkiye performed slightly better, with 57.4% possession and a narrow 12–11 edge in shots. Kosovo, ranked 79th in the world and playing in front of a packed stadium, came close to a historic first major tournament — less than a decade after the country joined FIFA and UEFA.
Head coach Vincenzo Montella’s side, a mix of emerging talent and experienced internationals, went into the game under heavy pressure to deliver after more than two decades of failed qualifying campaigns. In last week’s semi-final Türkiye had beaten Romania 1–0, with Ferdi Kadıoğlu scoring the goal.
The road to the World Cup
The build-up to Tuesday’s final was not without incident. The night before the match, Kosovo fans set off fireworks outside the Turkish team’s hotel in an attempt to disrupt the players’ rest. The episode underlined the high stakes of the game between two countries with close diplomatic and cultural ties — something the Football Federation of Kosovo had openly acknowledged in the days before the match.
Ranked 23rd by FIFA, Türkiye enters the tournament as the second-highest-ranked team in Group D after the United States (15th). Its first match is against Australia on 13 June in Vancouver. Türkiye then faces Paraguay on 19 June in San Francisco, before meeting the United States in Los Angeles on 25 June in its final group game.
