🇺🇿 Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan are an emerging Central Asian side reaching the World Cup stage. An AFC side, they enter the 2026 World Cup rated 1660 — 40th of the 48 teams — in Group K.

A long-time nearly-side of Asian qualifying whose breakthrough suits the expanded format. Technically tidy and organised, built on a developing golden generation.

Drawn alongside Portugal, Colombia and Congo DR, their toughest group test on paper is the meeting with Portugal. Our model projects them to finish 4th in the group and to fall short of the knockout rounds.