5 Worst Performing Teams at the 2026 World Cup

The 2026 World Cup has boasted a record number of teams, with 48 in all. As such, there have been some outfits of lesser quaity at the tournament this year – but which of them have been the worst of the worst?

That’s what we’ll look to examine today. In fairness, we don’t think many teams in the competition have been utterly hopeless – even Curacao, the smallest nation in World Cup history, managed to grind out a point against Ecuador. They even scored against 2014 champions Germany – they did, however, concede seven. Oh well.

We’ll base this list on overall performance, including goals scored, goals conceded and of course, points accumulated. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

Jordan

Jordan entered the 2026 World Cup with a very weak squad – they only had one player from Europe’s top five leagues within their ranks (Mousa Tamari at Rennes). Sadly, their overall performance reflected this.

To their credit, Jordan held their own in every game they played, but still came out on the losing end in all three of their matches. They were also in a fairly weak group, which is why we included them in this list. They held Austria to a stalemate for a while in their first game, but an own goal from Yazan Al Arab and a late penalty from Marco Arnautovic ultimately sunk them.

The Chivalrous Ones then actually took the lead against Algeria, only for them to succumb to a 2-1 defeat after they let two goals in during the second half. Already eliminated by the time they played Argentina, they kept the scoreline respectable, but still fell to a 3-1 win against the reigning champions.

Haiti

Haiti gave Scotland plenty of issues in their opening World Cup game, but still succumbed to a 1-0 defeat. Unfortunately, any promising signs they showed against the Tartan Army were seldom seen against Morocco and Brazil.

Against Brazil, they were hopelessly overmatched, losing by 3-0 whilst only accumulating an xG rating of 0.23. They actually started well against Morocco, entering the break with the game poised at 2-2, but two late goals from the 2022 semi-finalists ultimately sunk Les Grenadiers.

All in all, Haiti finished bottom of Group C without having amassed a single point. Their star man, Wilson Isidor, was the only player to score a goal for them – their other effort came courtesy of an own goal.

Tunisia

World Cup campaigns don’t often start as badly as this. Tunisia were thumped in their inaugural game by a score of 5-1 at the hands of Sweden – their performance was so bad that the Tunisian Football Federation opted to sack manager Sabri Lamouchi mid-tournament. He was replaced by Herve Renard, who, sadly, fared little better.

Their next game was arguably even worse than their first. Facing a highly-fancied Japan team, they were routinely picked apart by their fast-moving opponents, conceding four goals whilst offering nothing in return. After just two games, the Eagles of Carthage were already eliminated.

Their game against group favourites The Netherlands was actually their most postive outing, but it was still a pretty comfortable defeat. Despite going 2-0 down before the ten minute mark, they pulled one back in the second half, only for The Netherlands to restore their two-goal lead just eight minutes later. As such, they finished bottom of their group with a whopping 12 goals conceded.

Iraq

In Iraq’s defence, they were saddled with an incredibly tough group – with France, Norway and Senegal as their opponents, they were always going to be up against it. Regardless, other teams had managed to upset the odds this year – the Lions of Mesopotamia were not one of them.

Their first game, against Norway, was probably their best – and it still proved to be a resounding beating, as they lost by a score of 4-1. Aymen Hussein’s first half goal would be the only one they managed to score all tournament.

This perfomance was followed by a 3-0 thumping at the hands of France – to cap off their miserable camapaign, they were demolished 5-0 at the hands of Senegal. They scored as many goals in the tournament as their number of red cards – a record that no-one wants.

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan actually had a bit of quality heading into the World Cup – boasting Manchester City defender Abdukodir Khusanov and promising upstart Abbosbek Fayzullaev, they had the chance to rock the apple cart a bit. Unfortunately, as one can probably guess by their inclusion in this list, it didn’t work out that way.

To their credit, they did not sit in at any point, always looking to take the fight to their opponents. They played decently well against Columbia, losing by a score of 3-1, but the wheels fell off completely when they were dismantled 5-0 by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.

Their tournament was all-but over when they took DR Congo in their third game. The White Wolves led at half-time, to their credit, but fell to a 3-1 defeat after a late Congo fightback.