Bosnia & Herzegovina World Cup 2026: Dzeko to roll back the years, but for how long?

Bosnia & Herzegovina are preparing for their second appearance at the World Cup finals. They qualified by beating Italy in the final of their play-off pathway, with the Azzurri now missing the World Cup for the third straight tournament.

Bosnia will look to make the most of this chance but they are in a tricky group including co-hosts Canada, Switzerland and Qatar. Below I provide my Bosnia & Herzegovina World Cup predictions, including an analysis on their squad selections.

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Goalkeepers: Nikola Vasilj (St Pauli), Martin Zlomislic (Rijeka), Osman Hadzikic (Slaven Belupo)

Defenders: Sead Kolasinac (Atalanta), Amar Dedic (Benfica), Nihad Mujakic (Gaziantep), Nikola Katic (Schalke 04), Tarik Muharemovic (Sassuolo), Stjepan Radeljic (Rijeka), Dennis Hadzikadunic (Sampdoria), Nidal Celik (Lens)

Midfielders: Amir Hadziahmetovic (Hull City), Ivan Sunjic (Pafos), Ivan Basic (Astana), Dzenis Burnic (Karlsruher SC), Ermin Mahmic (Slovan Liberec), Benjamin Tahirovic (Brondby), Amar Memic (Viktoria Plzen), Armin Gigovic (Young Boys), Kerim Alajbegovic (RB Salzburg), Esmir Bajraktarevic (PSV Eindhoven)

Forwards: Ermedin Demirovic (VfB Stuttgart), Jovo Lukic (Universitatea Cluj), Samed Bazdar (Jagiellonia Bialystok), Haris Tabakovic (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Edin Dzeko (Schalke 04)

Bosnia are not a nation well-accustomed to the world stage but they have earned their place at the 2026 World Cup and they will look to make the most of the opportunity in front of them.

They were strong during their qualifying campaign, losing just one of their group fixtures. They had to go through the play-offs to seal their spot in North America, beating both Wales and Italy in the process.

The Dragons are the lowest-ranked European side at the World Cup but I think they will wear it as a badge of honour as they bid to ruffle some feathers over the coming weeks.

World Cup Odds

Former Arsenal man Sead Kolasinac is named in Bosnia's squad and he will be the leader of the back line. But their biggest beacon will be striker Edin Dzeko, who is still going strong at 40.

He is Bosnia's most-capped player (148) and their all-time top scorer (73). He will join an exclusive club of players to feature at the World Cup over the age of 40.

Group B Fixtures:

12 June 3pm local (8pm BST) - vs Canada (Toronto)

18 June 12pm local (8pm BST) - vs Switzerland (Los Angeles)

24 June 12pm local (8pm BST) - vs Qatar (Seattle)

Player to watch: Edin Dzeko

No one is more experienced than Dzeko in the Bosnia squad. No player comes close to the amount of goals or appearances he has for the Dragons, and he is the figurehead that his teammates will look to for inspiration at the World Cup this summer.

Dzeko scored nine goals across 15 qualifiers so he does look primed to deliver for his country over the coming weeks. The Schalke front man is reliant on service but Bosnia's counter-attacking style is designed to try and get the ball up front as quickly as possible.

Football Odds

Prediction: Round of 32

With Dzeko to guide them, I do see Bosnia getting out of their group. It is a tricky one to navigate their way through because Switzerland and Canada are expected to be tough opponents.

I reckon this could be one of the groups that does take up one of the eight third-place qualification spots, which would give Bosnia a good chance of reaching the knockout stage for the first time in their history.

However, I think they can rely on Dzeko up to a point, but once the knockout stage comes around, I fear they will crash out at the first hurdle because of a lack of experience at this level.