Antigua and Barbuda will be among teams from the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football) Region that will be resuming their campaign in the second round of qualifying matches next week in an effort to reach the 2026 FIFA World Cup Finals.
The second round of the CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup includes the two round-one winners, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, and the Confederation’s remaining 28 member associations that are also FIFA members (excluding the three World Cup hosts, Canada, Mexico, and the United States).
For the second round, the 30 participating teams were divided into six groups of five each during the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers official draw on January 25, 2024. The six groups are as follows:
Group A: Honduras, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands. Group B: Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and the Bahamas.
Group C: Haiti, Curaçao, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Aruba. Group D: Panama, Nicaragua, Guyana, Montserrat, and Belize.
Group E: Jamaica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, and the British Virgin Islands.
Group F: El Salvador, Suriname, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Anguilla.
Second-round matches will be played during the FIFA Match Windows of June 2024 and June 2025, with each team playing four matches (two home and two away).
Antigua and Barbuda’s Benna Boys, now under new interim head coach Jacques Antonio Passy Khan of Mexico, will be seeking their first win upon resumption of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers next month.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Benna Boys will play their third match in Group A when they host their second home game against Cuba at the ABFA Technical Center at Paynters on Friday, June 6, at 3 pm.
Antigua and Barbuda will play their fourth and final Group A encounter away to Honduras at the Estadio Nacional Chelato Ucles in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday, June 10, at 8 pm (10 pm Antigua time).
Antigua and Barbuda Benna Boys kicked off their second round qualifying campaign in Group A with a 1-1 draw against Bermuda at the ABFA Technical Center on June 5, 2024.
But Antigua and Barbuda lost their second encounter 1-0 against the Cayman Islands at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in George Town, Cayman Islands, on Saturday, June 8, 2024.
Honduras currently leads the Group A standings after winning their two previous matches. Honduras beat Cuba 3-1 at the Estadio Nacional Chelato Ucles in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on June 6, 2024.
Honduras hammered host Bermuda 6-1 at the Bermuda National Sports Centre in Devonshire, Bermuda, on June 9, 2024.
Cuba rebounded to prevail 3-0 against the Cayman Islands at the Estadio Antonio Maceo in Santiago, Cuba, on June 11, 2024.
Following the completion of the second round, the group winners and runners-up (12 teams in total) will progress to the third and final round of World Cup qualifiers.
The final round matches will be played during the September, October, and November 2025 FIFA Match Windows.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament will take place from June 11 to July 19. It will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
The tournament will be the first hosted by three nations and the first North American World Cup since 1994. Argentina is the defending World Cup champion.
