Alternative World Cup Qualifying Table: England Third in Europe — But How Do They Compare With South America’s Finest?

England sealed their place in the draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by thrashing Latvia 5-0 on Tuesday night.

That result — which came courtesy of a Harry Kane brace, a Maksims Tonisevs own goal and strikes from Anthony Gordon and Eberechi Eze — maintained England’s perfect record in the current World Cup qualifying campaign.

England have 18 points from their first six qualifiers, scoring 18 and conceding zero.

But another European nation has an even stronger statistical record at this stage.

Norway — powered by 12 goals from Erling Haaland, who is set to play at his first World Cup next summer — have 18 points and a goal difference of 26 after their first six matches.

That means Norway and England are both averaging three points per game (PPG), but Norway’s average goal difference (AGD) per game is 1.33 higher. England are also behind Spain on AGD, although the Euro 2024 champions have played two matches fewer so far.

Of course, this is far from a perfect way of ranking teams because England, Norway and Spain have all played different opponents and have not all played an equal number of games.

But using points per game and average difference, plus goals per game (GPG) as an additional tie-breaker where needed, allows us to unofficially rank all 54 European nations from the 12 UEFA groups of World Cup qualifying.

As you can see in the table below, England sit third — behind Norway and Spain — once goal difference per game is factored in.

Combined World Cup 2026 qualifying table (UEFA)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	PPG	AGD	GPG
1. Norway	6	6	0	0	29	3	26	18	3.00	4.33	4.83
2. Spain	4	4	0	0	15	0	15	12	3.00	3.75	3.75
3. England	6	6	0	0	18	0	18	18	3.00	3.00	3.00
4. Netherlands	6	5	1	0	22	3	19	16	2.67	3.17	3.67
5. Croatia	6	5	1	0	20	1	19	16	2.67	3.17	3.33
6. Denmark	4	3	1	0	12	1	11	10	2.50	2.75	3.00
7. Austria	6	5	0	1	19	3	16	15	2.50	2.67	3.17
8. Switzerland	4	3	1	0	9	0	9	10	2.50	2.25	2.25
9. Portugal	4	3	1	0	11	4	7	10	2.50	1.75	2.75
10. Italy	6	5	0	1	18	8	10	15	2.50	1.67	3.00
11. France	4	3	1	0	9	3	6	10	2.50	1.50	2.25
12. Scotland	4	3	1	0	7	2	5	10	2.50	1.25	1.75
13. Belgium	6	4	2	0	21	6	15	14	2.33	2.50	3.50
14. Germany	4	3	0	1	8	3	5	9	2.25	1.25	2.00
15. Turkey	4	3	0	1	13	10	3	9	2.25	0.75	3.25
16. Slovakia	4	3	0	1	5	2	3	9	2.25	0.75	1.25
17. Bosnia and Herz	6	4	1	1	13	5	8	13	2.17	1.33	2.17
18. Poland	6	4	1	1	10	4	6	13	2.17	1.00	1.67
19. North Macedonia	7	3	4	0	12	3	9	13	1.86	1.29	1.71
20. Czech Republic	7	4	1	2	12	8	4	13	1.86	0.57	1.71
21. Albania	6	3	2	1	6	3	3	11	1.83	0.50	1.00
22. Ukraine	4	2	1	1	8	7	1	7	1.75	0.25	2.00
23. Kosovo	4	2	1	1	3	4	-1	7	1.75	-0.25	0.75
24. Faroe Islands	7	4	0	3	10	6	4	12	1.71	0.57	1.43
25. Romania	6	3	1	2	11	6	5	10	1.67	0.83	1.83
26. Wales	6	3	1	2	13	10	3	10	1.67	0.50	2.17
27. Serbia	6	3	1	2	7	7	0	10	1.67	0.00	1.17
28. N. Ireland	4	2	0	2	6	5	1	6	1.50	0.25	1.50
29. Finland	7	3	1	3	8	13	-5	10	1.43	-0.71	1.14
30. Israel	7	3	0	4	15	19	-4	9	1.29	-0.57	2.14
31. Hungary	4	1	2	1	8	7	1	5	1.25	0.25	2.00
32. Cyprus	7	2	2	3	11	9	2	8	1.14	0.29	1.57
33. Iceland	4	1	1	2	11	9	2	4	1.00	0.50	2.75
34. Ireland	4	1	1	2	4	5	-1	4	1.00	-0.25	1.00
35. Kazakhstan	7	2	1	4	8	12	-4	7	1.00	-0.57	1.14
36. Montenegro	6	2	0	4	4	13	-9	6	1.00	-1.50	0.67
37. Greece	4	1	0	3	7	10	-3	3	0.75	-0.75	1.75
38. Georgia	4	1	0	3	6	9	-3	3	0.75	-0.75	1.50
39. Slovenia	4	0	3	1	2	5	-3	3	0.75	-0.75	0.50
40. Armenia	4	1	0	3	2	9	-7	3	0.75	-1.75	0.50
41. Latvia	7	1	2	4	4	13	-9	5	0.71	-1.29	0.57
42. Estonia	7	1	1	5	7	17	-10	4	0.57	-1.43	1.00
43. Lithuania	7	0	3	4	6	11	-5	3	0.43	-0.71	0.86
44. Malta	6	0	2	4	1	16	-15	2	0.33	-2.50	0.17
45. Sweden	4	0	1	3	2	7	-5	1	0.25	-1.25	0.50
46. Azerbaijan	4	0	1	3	2	11	-9	1	0.25	-2.25	0.50
47. Moldova	6	0	1	5	4	26	-22	1	0.17	-3.67	0.67
48. Andorra	7	0	1	6	3	15	-12	1	0.14	-1.71	0.43
49. Luxembourg	4	0	0	4	1	10	-9	0	0.00	-2.25	0.25
50. Gibraltar	6	0	0	6	2	20	-18	0	0.00	-3.00	0.33
51. Belarus	4	0	0	4	2	15	-13	0	0.00	-3.25	0.50
52. Bulgaria	4	0	0	4	1	16	-15	0	0.00	-3.75	0.25
53. Liechtenstein	6	0	0	6	0	23	-23	0	0.00	-3.83	0.00
54. San Marino	7	0	0	7	1	32	-31	0	0.00	-4.43	0.14

How does England’s record compare against South American teams?

Each of the last 22 Men’s World Cups have been won by a nation from either Europe or South America.

It is highly likely that a team from one of those continents will triumph at the 2026 World Cup too. Indeed, it was recently claimed that 11 nations with the highest probability of winning the 2026 World Cup were either European or South American, with England said to have a 12.5% chance.

So we decided to use the points per game and goal difference per game method to rank South America’s 10 national teams too, so we could compare their qualifying records against the likes of England, Spain and Norway.

South American qualifying is now complete, with each team having played 18 games since way back in September 2023.

Alternative World Cup 2026 qualifying table (CONMEBOL)

Rank	Team	Pld	GF	GA	GD	Pts	PPG	AGD
1	Argentina	18	31	10	21	38	2.11	1.17
2	Ecuador	18	14	5	9	29	1.61	0.50
3	Colombia	18	28	18	10	28	1.56	0.56
4	Uruguay	18	22	12	10	28	1.56	0.56
5	Brazil	18	24	17	7	28	1.56	0.39
6	Paraguay	18	14	10	4	28	1.56	0.22
7	Bolivia	18	17	35	-18	20	1.11	-1.00
8	Venezuela	18	18	28	-10	18	1.00	-0.56
9	Peru	18	6	21	-15	12	0.67	-0.83
10	Chile	18	9	27	-18	11	0.61	-1.00

Have Scotland really had a better qualifying campaign than Argentina?

Scotland are averaging 2.5 points per game at this stage, which is significantly more than Argentina (2.11).

But reigning champions Argentina are already guaranteed a spot at next summer’s tournament, while Scotland still have plenty of work to do.

In truth, Argentina face much stronger opposition in their qualifying campaign. The average FIFA World ranking of the 10 teams in South America’s qualifying competition is 32.9, while the average ranking of the 52 teams that entered the UEFA qualifying event is 74.

Scotland are ranked 43rd by FIFA. And while their own form has been impressive, the teams they’ve faced in qualifying — Denmark (20th), Greece (40th) and Belarus (100th) — are generally weaker than the nations Argentina face in South America.