MetLife Stadium will be one of the tournament\u2019s centrepieces in 2026, staging group fixtures, a round of 32 and a round of 16 tie in East Rutherford and the final on July 19 where over 82,000 people will watch the 2026 world champion crowned. Several marquee group games and knockout matches will bring Brazil, France, England and Germany to New York and New Jersey, and five of the sport\u2019s top players are guaranteed to appear at least once at MetLife.<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 arrives for France\u2019s match with Senegal on June 16. He is the reigning World Cup Golden Boot winner and picked up the individual honour, as well as a runners-up medal, back in 2022 when France fell short against Argentina in Qatar. Four years after the disappointing finish and eight years after Les Bleus won their second World Cup title, Didier Deschamps\u2019s men return with a potent attack led by Mbapp\u00e9. Despite the 27-year-old\u2019s turbulent time at Real Madrid, he comes into the tournament off the back of a 42-goal season and appears fully free of the knee injury that hindered his 2025\u201326. Mbapp\u00e9 was held quiet in France\u2019s two tune-up friendlies, but it\u2019s only a matter of time before he gets back on the scoresheet, and he has his first opportunity to do so at MetLife Stadium against Senegal. Should he bag a brace, Mbapp\u00e9 will become France\u2019s all-time leading goalscorer.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s meeting with Panama on June 27 will feature Harry Kane. The No. 9 scored 61 goals for Bayern Munich in 2025\u201326, a career-best haul ahead of the biggest tournament of his life. The Three Lions are one of the pre-tournament favourites, desperate to claim their first major honour since 1966, having finished as runners-up at the last two European championships. So much of England\u2019s hopes rest on Kane\u2019s shoulders, and there is likely no player in the world Thomas Tuchel would rather have leading his line than the captain, who is in the form of his life at age 32.<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s group meeting with Morocco on June 13 still carries huge star power. Achraf Hakimi and Brahim D\u00edaz lead the visitors while Vinicius Junior and Neymar Jr headline Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s squad. Another injury setback likely rules Neymar out of the opener at MetLife, leaving Vinicius Jr to take the spotlight. After eight seasons at Real Madrid, the winger brings confidence from 32 goal contributions for Los Blancos last season and a goal and an assist in Brazil\u2019s 6\u20132 rout over Panama, performances he will seek to replicate as Brazil chase a record-extending sixth World Cup title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MetLife Stadium will host group and knockout matches in 2026; five top stars are set to appear. NYNJ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1558,1033,1745],"class_list":["post-14261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-brazil","tag-brazilian-football","tag-kylian-mbappe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}