Some nations are choosing to remain in Europe for as long as possible before hoping across the pond for the 23rd World Cup.<\/p>\n
Leandro Trossard<\/strong>‘s Belgium will be facing two matches in Europe, heading to Croatia tonight before hosting Tunisia in the King Baudouin Stadium. Leo has 11 international goals to his name, including one in a 4-2 win over Wales in World Cup qualifying.<\/p>\n Viktor Gyokeres<\/strong>‘ Sweden are also finishing up their preparations on home soil. Vik’s nation returns to the Friends Arena in Stockholm, where the forward netted a dramatic winner over Poland to fire his nation to the World Cup, and will take on Greece on Thursday, June 4, before jetting off.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Spain are saying their goodbyes in La Coruna, where they will face Iraq before heading to Mexico, one of the host nations, to take on Peru in Puebla. <\/p>\n Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and David Raya<\/strong> have all been named in Luis de la Fuente’s World Cup squad.<\/p>\n Jurrien Timber<\/strong>‘s Netherlands hosts Algeria at De Kuip in Rotterdam before heading to the Big Apple, where they’ll play their final warm-up match against Uzbekistan at Icahn Stadium.<\/p>\n Lastly, William Cross<\/strong>s France are preparing for another tilt at World Cup glory with two matches in their country. Les Bleus will face the Ivory Coast in Nantes before entertaining Northern Ireland in Lille.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other nations are choosing to head to the World Cup hosts in order to acclimatise to the North American conditions.<\/p>\n England are one of those countries doing just that. Ethan Nwaneri has been selected to train with Thomas Tuchel’s group in Florida ahead of our quartet of lions in Eberechi Eze, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke<\/strong> join the rest of the squad.<\/p>\n The 1966 World Cup winners face New Zealand in Tampa before taking on Costa Rica in Orlando, one day before the main action kicks off in Mexico City, where Mexico host South Africa.<\/p>\n Kai Havertz<\/strong>‘s Germany are also across the Atlantic already. The Germans are taking on one of the host nations, the USA, in Chicago on June 6.<\/p>\n A day later, Norway will take on Morocco at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, where Martin Odegaard <\/strong>and his compatriots are gearing up for a first major tournament in 26 years.<\/p>\n On the same night, Piero Hincapie<\/strong>‘s Ecuador will be at the ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio, taking on Guatemala in their final warm-up fixture.<\/p>\n \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tuesday, June 2<\/strong> Wednesday, June 3<\/strong> Thursday, June 4<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweden v Greece – Gyokeres Spain v Iraq – Merino, Raya, Zubimendi France v Ivory Coast – Saliba Saturday, June 6<\/strong> USA v Germany – Havertz England v New Zealand – Eze, Madueke, Rice, Saka Brazil v Egypt – Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli Sunday, June 7<\/strong> Ecuador v Guatemala – Hincapie Monday, June 8<\/strong> France v Northern Ireland – Saliba Tuesday, June 9<\/strong> Wednesday, June 10<\/strong> Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday, June 11, and our stars that are heading to Mexico, Canada and the USA are starting their preparations after the curtain came down on our 2025\/26 campaign. All 48 nations heading to the newly expanded World Cup will be playing a series of warm-up international friendlies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Every Arsenal player called up for 2026 World Cup <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nSTATESIDE BOUND<\/h2>\n
World Cup 2026 draw: Who will our Gunners face? <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\nLIST OF WORLD CUP WARM-UPS<\/h2>\n
Kick-off time BST<\/h3>\n
Croatia v Belgium – Trossard
Stadium HNK Rijeka, Croatia, 5pm<\/p>\n
Netherlands v Algeria – Timber
De Kuip, Rotterdam, 7.45pm<\/p>\n
Friends Arena, Stockholm, 6pm<\/p>\n
Riazor, La Coruna, 8pm<\/p>\n
Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes, 8.10pm<\/p>\n
Belgium v Tunisia – Trossard
King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, 2pm<\/p>\n
Soldier Field, Chicago, 7.30pm<\/p>\n
Raymond James Stadium, Florida, 9pm<\/p>\n
Huntington Bank Field, Cleveland, 11pm<\/p>\n
Morocco v Norway – Odegaard
Red Bull Arena, New Jersey, 8pm<\/p>\n
ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, Columbus,9pm<\/p>\n
Netherlands v Uzbekistan – Timber
Icahn Stadium, New York, 7.45pm<\/p>\n
Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille 8.10pm<\/p>\n
Peru v Spain – Merino, Raya, Zubimendi
Cuauht\u00e9moc Stadium, Puebla, Mexico, 3am<\/p>\n
England v Costa Rica – Eze, Madueke, Saka, Rice
Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando, 9pm<\/p>\n<\/div>\n