Australia 2026 World Cup Schedule: Sydney (AEST) Kick-Off Times & Possible Knockout Opponents

“BC Place Stadium” by Ryan Adams, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution‑ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY‑SA 3.0).

Finishing second in their AFC qualifying group, Australia are set to compete in their seventh World Cup.

Drawn into Group D, the Socceroos group will see them face Paraguay, hosts USA, and a European country yet to be decided until the qualification play-offs in late March.

The team will be one of Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkiye and Romania, which will be decided during the UEFA European Play-Off Draw in March.

Australia fans now also know the schedule ahead of their opener on 14 June. 

All kick-off times mentioned are in Australian Eastern Standard Time.

Australia Group D Fixture Dates, Opponents, Venues and AEST Kick-Off Times

How to Watch the World Cup in the Australia

In Australia, all 104 games of the World Cup will be available to watch on free-to-air television on SBS.

Possible Knockout Opponents

Since qualifying for the first time in 1974, Australia have played in the World Cup six times, exiting in the group stage four times and reaching the Round of 16 twice.

In the 2022 edition, Australia advanced to the knockout phase after finishing second in their group on goal difference, tying on 6 points with eventual finalists France.

Should Australia have similar luck in North America, they would play in the newly-added Round of 32.

• If Australia top Group D, they will play a third-placed team from one of groups B/E/F/I/J. This would be at 10am on 2 July at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium.
• If Australia finish second in their group, they will play the runner-up of Group G. This would be at 4am on 4 July at Dallas Stadium.

Article by Zakaria Anani