Senegal vs Iraq

Senegal face Iraq at BMO Field (45,736 capacity) in Toronto on June 26, 2026, with kickoff at 3:00 PM EDT (UTC-4) in the Group I finale at the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Both Group I matches kick off simultaneously. While Senegal and Iraq play in Toronto, Norway and France play elsewhere. The full group resolves at once, and every permutation is live until the final whistle in both venues.

Senegal’s World Cup history runs through two moments separated by 20 years. In 2002, they beat France in their very first World Cup match, a 1-0 win in Seoul through Papa Bouba Diop, and reached the quarter-finals. In 2022, they were eliminated in the group stage without Sadio Mane, who had injured his knee days before the tournament began. The Lions of Teranga had built their entire 2022 campaign around Mane’s quality. His absence was not manageable. The 2026 squad is built to not have that single point of failure, with multiple players from European clubs capable of influencing results independently.

Iraq’s Asia Cup victory in 2007 remains the definitive achievement of their football program. They won it during a period when travelling abroad as an Iraqi national team required security operations at every airport. The players knew what those matches meant to people watching from Baghdad and Mosul. The 2026 generation carries that inheritance into every qualification campaign and every group-stage appearance.

When is this match? 3:00 PM EDT in Toronto means 8:00 PM BST in London and 9:00 PM CEST in Paris. Toronto’s West African community, one of Canada’s most established, will make BMO Field feel like a Senegalese home match in the afternoon sun. Iraqi-Canadians, concentrated significantly across the Greater Toronto Area, will fill the opposite sections.

Senegal beat France in their first World Cup match in 2002. Iraq won the Asia Cup in 2007 against all expectations. BMO Field on June 26 is where one of these nations ends the other’s tournament.

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