2024-09-16 20:45:36
After the defeat against Argentina, La Roja’s path to the world championship has become more complicated, which means they have to get out the calculator to estimate the points needed to finish in the qualifying zone or in the play-offs.
Chile does not raise head in the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and signed the worst start in its history, after adding only 5 out of 21 possible points after losing heavily to Argentina in Buenos Aires.
La Roja lost 3-0 to the Albiceleste and continues without scoring goals in official matches with Ricardo Gareca on the bench. This last defeat caused the Chilean team to be relegated to the second to last place in the standings, waiting for the conclusion of the 7th date, since if Peru wins its match against Colombia this Friday, the Team of All would be last.
In order to get on track, Chile will face Bolivia this Tuesday, September 10 at 6:00 p.m. at the National Stadium, where they must win to make up ground in the qualifiers and continue to depend on themselves to return to the World Cup after 12 long years.
In this context, the question arises regarding How many points does La Roja need to add to qualify for the 2026 World Cup in North America?either directly or via a play-off.
The number of points Chile needs to qualify for the 2026 World Cup
Unlike previous qualifiers, for this World Cup the quotas were increased to seven selections (six direct and one play-off). For this reason, fewer points will be required to qualify than in previous editions, where La Roja finished in 6th and 7th position in the processes leading up to Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, respectively.
These data allow us to make a projection regarding the score needed to be placed in the qualification zone. On the way to Russia 2018Chile finished 6th with 26 points, which would now serve to classify direct form.
If we take as an example, the last Qualifier, the Chilean team was placed in the seventh position with 19 points, which would allow him to contest the World Cup play-off.
To go back further in time, in the process leading up to Brazil 2014 Venezuela ranked sixth with only 20 pointswhile Peru finished seventh with 15 points, although Brazil did not participate in these Qualifiers, because it was the host country.
While on the road to South Africa 2010, the fight was closer. The team that took second placeEcuador was in sixth place and Colombia was in seventh place, both with 23 points. In this way, based on the scores of the previous processes, Chile would need to add between 23 and 26 units to gain direct accessand to be eligible for the play-off, should reach at least 19 points.
This is the standings for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, waiting for the end of Matchday 7