Liverpool’s World Cup Players: Fixtures and Insights

The World Cup is about to sprawl across the USA, Canada and Mexico, an expanded 48-team epic that kicks off on Thursday, June 11. Liverpool will be scattered across the continent, chasing glory, history and, in some cases, a first taste of football’s biggest stage.

All kick-off times below are BST.

Alisson Becker (Brazil)

Alisson heads to his third World Cup as Brazil’s undisputed No.1 and is poised to be the first Liverpool player in action at this edition.

Carlo Ancelotti has named him in a 26-man squad that also includes former Red Fabinho, now with Al-Ittihad. The Selecao, five-time world champions and never shy of expectation, open in Group C against 2022 semi-finalists Morocco. That’s a serious opening examination of Brazil’s credentials.

Haiti follow, then a potentially fiery meeting with Andy Robertson’s Scotland to close the group. For Alisson, it’s another chance to anchor a side built to go deep into the tournament.

Brazil’s Group C fixtures

• v Morocco – June 13, 11pm
• v Haiti – June 20, 1.30am
• v Scotland – June 24, 11pm

Wataru Endo (Japan)

Wataru Endo has made it. The foot injury he picked up with Liverpool in February threatened his summer, but the Japan captain has forced his way back in time to lead the Samurai Blue.

"It wasn't an easy way to recover from the injury but I believed in myself to make this happen and will keep working hard to get fit for the games," he said after the squad announcement. It’s typical Endo: understated, relentless.

Now 33, he walks into a group loaded with Anfield interest. Japan are in Group F alongside the Netherlands, Tunisia and Sweden, meaning Endo will see four Liverpool teammates across those three fixtures.

He knows this stage. At the last World Cup, Japan escaped a group containing Spain and Germany before Croatia knocked them out on penalties in the Round of 16. The memory of that shootout will linger; the ambition this time is to go further.

Japan’s Group F fixtures

• v Netherlands – June 14, 9pm
• v Tunisia – June 21, 5am
• v Sweden – June 26, 12am

Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch, Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands)

The Dutch contingent arrives with unfinished business.

For Cody Gakpo and Virgil van Dijk, this is familiar territory. They reached the quarter-finals in Qatar, only to fall on penalties to eventual champions Argentina. Gakpo lit up that group stage, scoring in all three matches before his move from PSV Eindhoven to Liverpool.

Ryan Gravenberch is the newcomer to this stage. This will be his first World Cup, a step into the glare that his talent has long promised.

The Netherlands share Group F with Endo’s Japan, Sweden and Tunisia. It’s a group laced with narrative: Liverpool teammates on opposite sides, contrasting styles, and a Dutch side that expects to impose itself from the first whistle.

Netherlands’ Group F fixtures

• v Japan – June 14, 9pm
• v Sweden – June 20, 6pm
• v Tunisia – June 26, 12am

Alexander Isak (Sweden)

For Alexander Isak, this is the debut he has been waiting for.

Sweden missed out in 2022, and the absence stung. They squeezed into this 2026 edition via the play-offs, their route secured by their UEFA Nations League ranking rather than a straightforward qualifying campaign. No one in that dressing room will take a minute of this tournament for granted.

Graham Potter arrived as head coach on a short-term deal in October, tasked initially with stabilising. He did more than that. By March, Sweden had seen enough and extended his contract through to 2030.

Isak leads the line for a side that believes it can unsettle anyone. Their group, again, is the Liverpool cluster: Tunisia first, then the Netherlands, then Japan. Every game carries a story, every game a reunion.

Sweden’s Group F fixtures

• v Tunisia – June 15, 3am
• v Netherlands – June 20, 6pm
• v Japan – June 26, 12am

Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina)

Alexis Mac Allister returns to the World Cup as a champion, but the challenge now is even more daunting: help Argentina become only the third nation to retain the men’s title.

Only Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) have ever gone back-to-back. That’s the scale of what Lionel Scaloni’s side are chasing.

Argentina will again be captained by Lionel Messi, stepping into his sixth World Cup at the age of 38. Mac Allister knows exactly how quickly a campaign can turn. In 2022, then at Brighton & Hove Albion, he watched the shock 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia from the bench in the opener. From there, he started the next six matches and became one of the pillars of their run to glory.

This time, there is no sense of him waiting in the wings. Argentina enter Group J as the team everyone wants to beat, opening against Algeria before facing Austria and Jordan.

Argentina’s Group J fixtures

• v Algeria – June 17, 2am
• v Austria – June 22, 6pm
• v Jordan – June 28, 3am

From Alisson’s pursuit of a sixth Brazilian star to Mac Allister’s bid for a rare title defence, Liverpool’s fingerprints will be all over this World Cup. The only question now is which of them comes back to Anfield with a medal – and how many return with the taste for even more.