2026 WORLD CUP GROUP B PREVIEW: Bosnia & Herzegovina
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Alexandre Gangue-Ruzic is previewing all of the teams in Group B. Here's a look at Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The lowdown:
FIFA Ranking: #64
Elo Ranking: #65
Head coach: Sergej Barbarez
Number of World Cups: 2 (2014, 2026)
Best World Cup result: Group Stage (2014)
For the second time in their history, Bosnia & Herzegovina will participate in the FIFA World Cup, as they’ve qualified for the first time since the 2014 edition.
Now, they’ll look to build on what they did in that first World Cup, where they narrowly missed out on the knockout stages after finding themselves in a tough group with (eventual finalists) Argentina, Nigeria and Iran.
They were still able to make history in that tournament, securing their first World Cup victory courtesy of a 3-1 win over Iran - this time, they’ve got their eyes on a run to the knockout stages.
Armed with two players from that 2014 tournament, the timeless Edin Džeko and defender Saad Kolašinac, those two veterans will hope to take the lessons learned from Brazil as they lead a refreshed side in North America.
Armed with an impressive young group of players, it’s hoped that this can be the start of a strong Bosnian generation, and it helps their case that their qualification for this tournament came ahead of schedule, showing what UEFA learned this cycle - Bosnia is ready for the big stage.
How they got here:
It was a dramatic World Cup qualifying cycle for Bosnia, who were one of the last teams in the world to book their spot in this tournament.
After a hot start to qualifying, as they won four games to kickstart Group H action on a strong note, they stalled at the midway point, as a 2-1 home defeat to Austria and a 2-2 road draw vs. Cyprus brought them down to earth. To their credit, they managed to recover with a big win over Romania in their penultimate match, but they entered their final match against Austria needing to win to qualify automatically.
Despite taking an early lead, however, they couldn’t hold on and had to settle for a late draw, which allowed Austria to qualify automatically. As a result, Bosnia was left to go through the playoff, where they faced a tough draw - they’d face Wales away in the semi-finals, and, if they won that, they’d have a date with either Italy or Northern Ireland at home in the final.
There, though, is where they showed their resilience as a squad.
First, in the semi-finals, they managed to beat Wales on penalties despite spending most of the game down a goal, as they were able to rescue a victory after a late equalizer allowed them to eventually reach penalties.
Then, in the final, they pulled off a similar act against Italy, winning on penalties despite spending most of the game trailing by a goal, as they had some more heroics up their sleeve in the form of another late equalizer.
Yet, that was the story of qualifying for Bosnia - they didn’t make things easy for themselves, but they showed that they’re not ones to let themselves get counted out, even when their backs were against the wall.
How they’ll play:
Preferred formation: 4-4-2
Bosnia prides themselves on being tough to play, as they’re a physical team that can grind teams down on both sides of the ball under head coach Sergej Barbarez, a former Bosnian international who has led this team since 2024.
Thanks to their physical prowess, as most of the players in their squad are over six feet tall, they do a great job of defending their own box and causing havoc in the opposing box, especially on set-piece situations. That they’ve managed to generate shots on over 36% of their corners and 28% of their free-kicks in the past year shows what they can do on those offensive set-piece situations, in particular.
Because of that, they have no problems with slowing down the game to play at their pace - they averaged over 17 fouls per game in the group stage of World Cup qualifying, and over 18 fouls per game in their two play-off matches.
At the same time, they’ve got the quality to make things happen in possession - they still held close to 50% of the ball on average in their World Cup qualifiers. Thanks to the emergence of some technical wingers and midfielders who are comfortable with the ball, they can put together some good sequences of play.
Typically, though, they like to end their attacks similarly - with someone whipping in a cross for one of their strikers to attack. That they averaged over 13 crosses per game, at a 37% success rate, in the group stage of World Cup qualifiers shows that.
What that shows, though, is the key to what Bosnia will hope to do in this tournament - they want to wear teams down, physically, both through their sheer number of duels and fouls, as well as through their technical skill.
Players to watch:
Bosnia has a strong squad, one filled with players across a wide variety of age ranges - they’ve got four players over 30 years of age (including one over 40), they’ve got 10 players in the prime age range of 27 to 29, and they’ve got nine players who are 23 or younger.
These players find themselves at a pretty high level, too - they’ve got nine players who are contracted to clubs that were either in the top five leagues last year or clubs that got themselves promoted to that level for next season. And a good chunk of the rest of their squad finds themselves at strong clubs in smaller leagues just outside the top five and top 10, too, which can be argued is a similar level.
In goal, Nikola Vasilj is expected to start, as he has 26 caps for Bosnia and played all 34 games for German Bundesliga side St. Pauli in 2025-2026, although they got relegated from the German top flight after a trying campaign. After playing every game of the World Cup qualifiers for Bosnia, Vasilj will be leaned on again this summer.
Defensively, Saad Kolašinac remains a key piece at left back, having been in that 2014 World Cup squad, as the 32-year-old is an important leader with 65 caps for his country, having also played a good squad role for Atalanta in 2025-2026. Yet, beyond Kolašinac, there are a few other intriguing names for Bosnia to lean on - one that stands out is centre-back Tarik Muhaermović, who played a big role for Bosnia in World Cup qualifiers and is coming off a strong season with US Sassuolo.
In midfield, Bosnia relies on a veteran group to do a lot of important work on both sides of the ball - because of that, a big standout is young winger Esmir Bajraktarević, as the PSV winger is extremely fun to watch with the ball at his feet. A former US youth international, he grew into a big role for Bosnia during World Cup qualifiers and will look to destabilize defenders with his tricky dribbling.
Lastly, up front, the big name remains Edin Džeko, as the 40-year-old striker has shown no signs of slowing down at the tail-end of an illustrious career. Sitting with 73 goals in 148 caps for Bosnia, Džeko is fresh off a campaign where he helped Schalke 04 return to the Bundesliga, scoring six goals and adding three assists in 11 games after joining the team halfway through (he started the year with Serie A side Fiorentina). While Bosnia has other names supporting him in the attack, such as Bajraktarević and Ermedin Demirović, to name a few, Džeko will be leaned on heavily, especially after the injury to Haris Tabaković, whose status heading into this tournament is unknown. 
Tournament expectations:
Given that this is just their second World Cup, and that they have arguably arrived ahead of schedule, it feels like Bosnia is playing with house money here. At the same time, given what they were able to accomplish in qualifying and the group they’ve managed to find themselves in, anything but a run to the knockout stages will feel like a disappointment for them.
On paper, they’ve got a squad more than capable of achieving that, and they’ve proven to be a tough team to play, so they’ll target a second-place finish, knowing that they could potentially even shoot for first place if they can surprise group favourites Switzerland.
From there, anything they achieve in the knockout rounds would be a bonus, although it must be said that their physical style of play could set them up nicely to frustrate any teams they face in any do-or-die matches.
One big question:
Will Bosnia be able to keep a clean sheet?
Something to watch out for - in their last 13 games, Bosnia have kept just three clean sheets, and two of them were against the last-ranked team in the world, San Marino. They kept a clean sheet in one of their pre-World Cup friendlies, a 0-0 draw against North Macedonia, which is a good sign - they’ll look to build on that heading into this tournament.
