Croatia beat the in-form Faroe Islands 3-1 on Friday and almost certainly won their spot in the 2026 World Cup in North America. The Netherlands also almost certainly won their spot in the finals.

Germany still needs to beat Slovakia at home on Monday in their last Group A game in order to qualify, even though Nick Woltemade scored both goals in a shaky 2-0 win at Luxembourg.

Faroese player Geza David Turi gave them an early shock lead. But goals from Josko Gvardiol, Petar Musa, and Nikola Vlasic in Rijeka sent Croatia to the 2018 World Cup finals in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

With just one game left, Croatia now leads the Czech Republic by six points in Group L.

Gvardiol wrote on his X account, “For Croatia, for the fans!” with joy.

But it was a night when the underdogs scared their more famous opponents, though they didn’t manage to land a real hit.

The Faroese were on a three-game winning streak and still had slim chances of making it, but they were brave enough to take the lead against a team that only needed a draw to move on.

Turi got the ball just inside the Croatian half and ran forward without being stopped. He then tried his luck from outside the box and beat Dominik Livakovic in the Croatian goal with a heavy bounce on 16 minutes.

The lead only lasted seven minutes before Gvardiol, a defender for Manchester City, scored to tie the game after the Faroes defense hesitated.

The home team slowly took over because Luka Modric, who is 40 years old but still plays great, was in charge of Croatia’s center. It was his 193rd cap.

In the 12th minute of the second half, Musa scored at the near post to calm the Croatians down.

The Faroese were quickly losing their chance to become the smallest country ever to make it to a World Cup. Twenty minutes from time, Vlasic scored a cushioned shot that beat Mathias Lamhauge, who was out of position.

Depay keeps the Dutch ahead –

In a 1-1 draw in Poland, Memphis Depay scored the 55th goal of his career for the Netherlands, which broke the previous record. This goal put the Netherlands on the verge of qualifying.

Poland had a chance to beat the Netherlands to first place in Group G two minutes before the break in Warsaw. Jakub Kaminski scored by slamming the ball past Bart Verbruggen in the Dutch goal after Robert Lewandowski sent it through.

But two minutes after the game started again, Depay scored to keep the Netherlands’ three-point lead at the top of the group. They also have a huge goal difference edge of 13, which means they will easily qualify when they play Lithuania at home on Monday.

In Group A, brave Luxembourg gave Germany a lot of trouble in the first half, but Woltemade scored two goals in the second half to put Germany on top of the pool.

According to Woltemade, the game wasn’t pretty, but they said, “I know it wasn’t pretty, but we gave our all, pushed hard, and got the three points.”

They only need a point against Slovakia at home on Monday to make sure they go to the World Cup.

Two Slovakian goals were ruled out by video review, but Tomas Bobcek scored in extra time in Kosice to give them a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland.

But Slovakia needs to win in Germany on Monday to finish first in their group and avoid having to play in the playoffs.

In another game, Liam Jessop’s goal in the 20th minute looked like it would give Gibraltar their first win or even a draw in a big tournament qualification match. But Vasilije Adzic and Nikola Krstovic made sure that Montenegro didn’t lose shockingly and beat them 2-1 in Group L.