The stage is set for the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and for the first time in tournament history, the top four teams in the FIFA World Rankings have all reached the final four. After a month of drama, upsets and dominant performances, EssentiallySports staff weighed in by ranking each semifinalist from first to fourth based on their tournament performances so far.

The results produced a clear consensus. France emerged as the overwhelming No. 1 choice, England established itself as the panel’s preferred runner-up, Spain split opinion despite remaining in contention, while defending champions Argentina finished fourth after receiving more last-place votes than any other semifinalist.

So, here are the EssentiallySports Power Rankings for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

• 1st- France – 61.1%

France dominated the staff ballot. Les Bleus earned 61.1% of all first-place votes more than the other three semifinalists combined—and an impressive 91.7% of voters placed them inside their top two. No other team came close to matching that level of consensus.

Didier Deschamps’ team has barely broken a sweat this World Cup with 16 goals through 6 games, and has conceded just two. Spearheaded by Kylian Mbappé, who leads the scoring charts with eight goals, they have match winners everywhere in attack, and the defense is ever so strong.

That overwhelming backing made France the clear No. 1 team in the EssentiallySports Staff Power Rankings heading into the semifinals.

• 2nd – England – 38.9%

England edged Spain to claim second place in the staff rankings. The Three Lions received more second-place votes than any other team (38.9%), making them the panel’s consensus runner-up despite being almost level with Spain in the overall rankings.

The Three Lions handed the reins to Thomas Tuchel, a foreign manager, for just the third time in their history to end their silverware drought. Tuchel has brought his brand of knockout soccer to England by making them tough to beat. He has managed to bring out the best in Harry Kane and mainly Jude Bellingham.

But Bellingham was a surprise, as he has been the player of the tournament so far for England with 6 goals and most of them winning games for England.

But even with the pair of them scoring 12 of the 13 goals, England lack the power to overcome France in the ES Power Rankings and will book themselves the 2nd spot.

• 3rd – Spain – 37.8%

Spain proved to be the most divisive team among the top three. While the reigning European champions remained within touching distance of England in the final rankings, they received more third-place votes than any other semifinalist, reflecting the mixed opinions around their tournament performances.

Although the Spain attack has not clicked so far and they have scored only 11 goals, they have conceded just one. But they have deeper issues. They have had a very up-and-down World Cup. The performances against Cape Verde, Uruguay, Portugal and Belgium weren’t convincing at all.

Of all the players in the team, Mikel Merino has been the saving grace for them, scoring winners against both Portugal and Belgium.

But we have seen in the 2010 FIFA World Cup what they did and went all the way by scoring just 8 goals. But with what we have seen so far in 2026, they can’t be put anywhere above the 3rd spot in the Power Rankings.

• 4th – Argentina – 38.1%

Either first or fourth, there was nothing in between for our staff when it came to ranking Argentina. Making the semis in back-to-back World Cups is no small feat, especially with aging players like Lionel Messi and De Paul. But the problem is that the younger generation who was expected to take over the reins from the GOAT has fallen well short.

This has pushed our staff at ES to rank Argentina as the 4th most powerful team among the four with 38.1% votes.

And there is mainly one reason for this: Lionel Messi. The Albiceleste have been so dependent on Messi that he has scored 8 out of the 17 goals and even has 2 assists. This shows that without him, this team might not have made it past Cape Verde in the Round of 32.

But through all the challenges, they have dug deep, like in the games against Egypt, and come back from 0-2 to win the game 3-2. But other than the dependency on Messi, their defense has also not looked all that good, with them allowing 4 goals in 2 games against teams like Cape Verde and Egypt.

And this lack of showing from the rest of the fans gives the ES staff very little confidence, and that has landed Argentina 4th in our Power Rankings.

Our staff has made the choices about the Power Rankings, and now, we wait to see if our Power Rankings stand strong or the World Cup shows its magic again.