The qualification of Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Czech Republic, Iraq, and the Democratic Republic of Congo allowed for the final definition of the groups for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada. However, this did not contribute much to the history of head-to-head matches between the teams, with one exception. This concerns the Scandinavian team, which fell into Group F, which also includes the Netherlands, Japan, and Tunisia. Sweden added a match to the head-to-head history of the teams in this zone, as it faced the 'Orange' squad in Germany 1974. In that tournament, the team led by Johan Cruyff showcased an attractive and powerful style of football, but they fell in the final, losing 2-1 to the hosts. On that occasion, Sweden drew 0-0 with the Netherlands in the second match of Group 3 in the initial stage of the competition. In this way, the match was added to the two other games in their head-to-head history, according to a survey by the Argentine News Agency. In the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup, for Group H, the Japanese team defeated Tunisia 2-0 with goals from Hiroaki Morishima and Hidetoshi Nakata. Likewise, the Asian team also has a previous encounter with the Netherlands, from Group E of the 2010 South Africa World Cup, although in this case, the 'Orange' team won 1-0 with a goal from Wesley Sneijder.
