Iraq vs Norway, World Cup: Graham Arnold to make history
Graham Arnold will make history when Iraq kick-off their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign against Norway in Group I on Wednesday (AEST).
For the first time since 1986, Iraq will feature at the World Cup after conquering Bolivia in their intercontinental play-off.
With Arnold at the helm, the 2007 Asian Cup champions ended their 40-year wait as the Socceroos great galvanised a population of 46 million amid conflict in the Middle East. It also captured the hearts and minds of people around the world.
“There’s been a hell of a lot of travel the players have gone through. There’s been a lot of pressure on their shoulders from 46 million obsessed football fans because that’s what iraq is,” Arnold reflected.
“They’re obsessed with their football more than any nation really that I’ve ever been to.”
In Foxborough, just outside Boston, former Socceroos boss Arnold will become the first Australian coach to lead a foreign nation to the men’s World Cup and also the first Aussie to coach at back-to-back editions of football’s showpiece tournament.
If that is not enough, he will become the first men’s coach from the AFC to lead two different nations to a World Cup, having guided the Socceroos to the Round of 16 in 2022.
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“We’ve got to believe in ourselves and we’ve got to go out there and be brave to play,” Arnold told reporters. “Qualification is not enough. I want more. We’ve only got everything to win and not to lose.
“We’ve got to perform to our best and try to shock the world.”
Iraq head into their tournament opener on the back of mixed results.
While they lost 2-0 to Venezuela just before the World Cup, Arnold’s men did stun reigning European champions Spain in a 1-1 draw earlier in the month.
“This will be my fourth World Cup and results don’t always go the ‘right’ way: at the last, Saudi Arabia beat Argentina,” Arnold told The Guardian. “It’s about getting players mentally ready. We’ve got a very, very tough group with Norway, France and Senegal but it’s a great opportunity.
“People say Group of Death, but it’s the Group of Excitement. I feel we’ll be even better at this World Cup than through qualifying because the weight is completely off their shoulders now.
“We have absolutely no pressure at all because everybody – even in Iraq – expects us to lose all three games. The most important thing is that when we cross that white line we’re brave, play with energy and excitement. It’s a privilege to be against fantastic players like Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and Sadio Mané. It’s huge: a chance to show what we’ve got. I’m big on making them believe we’re capable of doing something that will shock the world and I truly believe that at this World Cup it will happen.”
On Haaland, he continued: “He’s an outstanding player. I actually adore the way he plays. Haaland is just an incredible number nine.
“We’ve got to back ourselves and what we can’t do is be scared to go on the field and play against guys.
“They’ve got to be excited and go out there and be prepared for the one v one fight. And I think that’s one thing Iraqis do have, they’ve got a great fighting spirit.”
When is kick-off?
For fans watching in Australia, Iraq and Norway will go head-to-head from 8am (AEST) on Wednesday. The match will be broadcast live via SBS and SBS On Demand.
How Iraq got to the World Cup
“We shouldn’t have achieved it,” assistant Rob Stanton told Football360 after qualifying. “We really shouldn’t have achieved it.”
To get a clear idea of the magnitude of Iraq’s achievement, you have to go back to the very start.
Arnold had just sensationally stepped down as head coach of the Socceroos in September 2024.
A legend of Australian football and the longest-serving coach in Socceroos history, Arnold resigned with Australia winless through their opening two matches in the third phase of 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup qualifying.
Arnold had guided the Socceroos to the Round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup, where they were agonisingly upstaged by eventual champions Argentina.
But, continuing with the Green and Gold after six years in the role didn’t feel right.
Enter Iraq. Eight months on from leaving the Socceroos, the 2007 Asian Cup champions came knocking.
With Iraq’s World Cup qualifying campaign faltering, they turned to a familiar face – one who had gone head-to-head with Lions of Mesopotamia on numerous occasions in the AFC.
When Arnold took over, Iraq were third in Group B ahead of two big fixtures against leaders South Korea and second-placed Jordan in June, 2025.
Iraq made it to the play-offs thanks to their dramatic 107th-minute penalty against the United Arab Emirates in the fifth round of AFC qualifying, having only missed out on direct qualification to Saudi Arabia on goals scored.
But chaos ensued heading into the intercontinental play-off.
Having seen last year’s Middle East conflict simmer down, the war between Iran and the United States/Israel threw Iraq’s plans into disarray.
Arnold was stranded in Dubai as he called on FIFA to salvage the nation’s World Cup dream.
“Arnie sent me to Poland,” Stanton told Football360 recently. “Spider (Zeljko Kalac) went to Zagreb and then over to Prague, and then Italy. When we left Arnie, he was in Dubai looking at a couple of boys.
“Arnie couldn’t get out of Dubai. There were missiles. Arnie was being told to go in the bathroom where it’s safe. It was pretty hairy where he was; (he) could hear the bombs.”
The escalating situation in the region caused a number of problems, on and off the field.
“I said to Arnie, ‘mate, I don’t think these game are going to go ahead’. Because Mexico too, we couldn’t get visas,” said Stanton. “We had visas organised, but then they shut down the US embassy and we couldn’t get back to Baghdad to confirm our visas.
“We had approval, but we couldn’t get the stamp in our passports because we couldn’t get back. So we couldn’t go to Mexico via US. We had to find ways to go there.
“I said: ‘Arnie I don’t think this is going to happen, mate. And come the 19th, if nothing’s happened, I’m going to go home’.
“He goes, ‘no, no, no, don’t’. And Spider said ‘come to Zagreb’. So I got on a plane. Then we got Arnie out, we convinced him to come to Zagreb.”
There was a special pitstop on that Croatian escape – the cafe owned by Australian icon Mark Viduka.
“Arnie was quite stressed. He’d been non-stop on the phone. He’s had dramas where he was, it was quite dangerous and I’d been flying non-stop for like two weeks living out of a little mini suitcase, because all our gear was left in Baghdad. So they had to break into our apartments. I had no gear so I said, ‘mate, you’ve got to get into our apartments and get our bags because they were supposed to go out through Turkey,” Stanton added.
“They couldn’t, so they traveled 20 hours to Jordan.”
There were some late travel plans for Arnold and his staff. Iraq wanted them to fly to Jordan to link up with the players..
Stanton and Co. “weren’t too keen”. Not only was it a “risk” but a “no-go zone”. Eventually, they found a flight to Madrid – approved by the hierarchy.
So Arnold, Stanton, Kalac and team analyst Stevan Antonic flew to Monterrey from Madrid.
After getting the job done against Bolivia, Arnold, Stanton and Kalac joined the team on a chartered flight to Barcelona. Now, the World Cup awaits.
The other Aussies involved
Arnold’s Iraq staff is stacked with Australians.
Aside from Stanton, there is former Socceroos goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac, Chris Pappas, Adam Barbera, Stevan Antonic and Ali Abbas, the former Iraq winger who sought asylum in Australia in 2007 and went on to carve out an impressive career in the A-League.
Ex-Manchester United assistant and Dutchman Rene Meulensteen is also Arnold’s trusted right-hand man.
“I don’t know too many people who could have come and done the job he’s done. It required a certain personality and a bit of his larrikin at times, in a country that they’ve adapted to (the fact) he’s a bit of a larrikin. They’ve loved it because they’ve connected with him,” Stanton said.
“He’s absorbed a lot of pressure. He’s constantly trying to solve things that maybe he didn’t have to with the Socceroos.”
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