Published On 1 Apr 20261 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
Fireworks, sporadic gunfire and music filled the air across Baghdad as Iraq\u2019s national football team qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in nearly 40 years.<\/p>\n
The Lions of Mesopotamia clinched their place for the first time since Mexico 1986 with a 2-1 victory over Bolivia on Tuesday night. Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s achievement came during the US-Israel war on Iran which has pulled Iraq into the hostilities. At least 100 people have been killed in Iraq since the fighting began.<\/p>\n
Despite the war, supporters flooded Baghdad\u2019s main shopping areas at dawn to celebrate their team\u2019s triumph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis victory is incredibly precious to us, despite the war raging,\u201d Ahmed, 22, told the AFP news agency outside a cafe in the central Karrada district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Iraqi people are united across all sects,\u201d he added, comparing the moment with Iraq\u2019s 2007 Asian Cup victory when fighting then was at its peak.<\/p>\n
The jubilant crowd, some moved to tears, brought traffic to a standstill as thousands waved Iraqi flags while standing on top of cars and trucks. Street tea vendors, who typically struggle to make ends meet, shouted \u201ctea for free\u201d as they too were caught up in the euphoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the dire economic situation and the war, our national team won,\u201d Ali al-Muhandis told AFP, his voice hoarse from cheering. \u201cWe in Iraq excel in exceptional circumstances. We are living through a war that has nothing to do with us, because it\u2019s between Iran, America and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iraq has been unwillingly drawn into the conflict, facing attacks on US interests within its borders and strikes against pro-Iran armed groups. That\u2019s disrupting a period of relative stability Iraqis had been enjoying following decades of insecurity.<\/p>\n
The Iraqi team reached Mexico after an arduous three-day journey, with some players forced to travel partially overland after Iraq suspended air travel due to the war. Despite the challenges, Ali al-Hamadi and Aymen Hussein each scored a goal in the memorable win.<\/p>\n
State television broadcast nationwide celebrations as Iraqi leaders congratulated the team. Officials had promised financial bonuses for a win and declared a two-day holiday following the victory.<\/p>\n
Iraq will compete in World Cup Group I against France, Senegal and Norway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published On 1 Apr 20261 Apr 2026 Fireworks, sporadic gunfire and music filled the air across Baghdad as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2714,289,94,2980,2979,49,42,1023,2577,3222],"class_list":{"0":"post-46619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-gallery","10":"tag-iraq","11":"tag-latin-america","12":"tag-mexico","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-world-cup","17":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116329261648633011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}