Belgium Top World Cup 2026 Group G After 5–1 Win

Belgium won the 2026 FIFA World Cup Group G on June 26 local time, finishing first after defeating New Zealand 5–1 in Vancouver while Egypt and Iran drew 1–1 simultaneously in Seattle, with both results confirming the final order of the four-team group.

The Final Group G Standings

Belgium and Egypt each finished on five points, but Belgium claimed top spot through superior overall goal difference. Both teams had drawn their head-to-head meeting 1–1 on June 15, leaving all head-to-head criteria equal. According to FIFA's tiebreaker rules, the comparison then moved to overall goal difference across all three matches. Belgium's +4 edged Egypt's +2.

The official FIFA Group G standings read as follows:

Belgium and Egypt advance automatically to the Round of 32. Iran finished third and entered the cross-group best-third-place comparison. New Zealand were eliminated, ending their third World Cup appearance, across 1982, 2010 and 2026, without a single win in the finals.

Belgium 5–1 New Zealand: How It Happened

Belgium entered the final matchday in third place, without a win from their opening two draws. By the 83rd minute they led 3–0, before the match produced two more goals from each side in a frantic final eight minutes.

Leandro Trossard opened the scoring in the 28th minute and doubled it in the 50th. Kevin De Bruyne added a third in the 67th. At that point, Belgium's overall goal difference moved ahead of Egypt's in the live table, and the group leadership changed hands.

Elijah Just pulled one back for New Zealand in the 84th minute, briefly narrowing the margin before Romelu Lukaku, who had started the match on the bench, came on and scored within two minutes of Just's goal, restoring Belgium's three-goal lead. Alexis Saelemaekers then scored in the fourth minute of added time to make the final score 5–1.

Several live summaries indexed the match at 4–1 because they did not capture Saelemaekers' stoppage-time goal. The verified full-time score, confirmed in the FIFA official match record, is New Zealand 1–5 Belgium.

A fuller account of how the Belgium–Iran 0–0 draw in Matchday 2 shaped Belgium's approach to the final game is available in our Alireza Beiranvand match report.

Egypt 1–1 Iran: Key Moments

Mahmoud Saber put Egypt ahead in the fifth minute in Seattle. Iran won a penalty in the first half, but Egyptian goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir saved Mehdi Taremi's spot-kick. Ramin Rezaeian equalised for Iran in the 14th minute and the score did not change again.

Mohamed Salah, Egypt's captain and most prominent player, was substituted in the 57th minute and was seen with ice on his left hamstring. No official diagnosis or confirmed injury was issued at the time of this report. Taremi struck the crossbar late in the second half, though play had been stopped for a foul before that contact.

The draw left Egypt second and sent Iran into the third-place comparison table. Iran played all three matches without a defeat, drawing New Zealand 2–2, Belgium 0–0 and Egypt 1–1, finishing with three points and zero goal difference.

What This Means for the Knockout Stage

Belgium advanced as group winners and will face a qualifying third-place side in the Round of 32, with the specific opponent determined by the completed best-third-place table. Egypt, as runner-up, face Australia in Dallas on July 3, according to AFC reporting.

Iran's qualification remains conditional. Eight of the 12 third-place finishers in the expanded 48-team tournament advance. The ranking uses total points first, then overall goal difference, goals scored, fair-play score and FIFA ranking as successive criteria, a different sequence from the head-to-head-first rules applied within groups. Sky Sports' live third-place tracker is updating in real time as remaining groups conclude.

For context, the World Cup 2026 Group H standings show how close the margins can be: all four teams finished level on points after the opening round, illustrating how tight the competition for third-place slots has become across the tournament's 12 groups.

Group G: The Full Match Record

Belgium and Egypt both drew their opening fixture 1–1 on June 15. Iran and New Zealand drew 2–2 the same day. In Matchday 2, Belgium held Iran 0–0, while Egypt beat New Zealand 3–1, Egypt's first victory in World Cup finals history after failing to win in seven previous matches across 1934, 1990 and 2018. Egypt's path through the group, including that second-round win, is covered in our earlier preview of Egypt's Group G decider.

Belgium's five-goal win on the final matchday means their completed group record stands at one win, two draws and zero losses, with six goals scored and two conceded.

Belgium now await their Round-of-32 opponent, determined by the final best-third-place rankings across all 12 groups.