At the 1986 World Cup, there were four places in South America. Ten teams were divided into three groups, four teams in Group 1, the first team in the group advanced to the World Cup, and the second and third teams in the group qualified for the play-offs. The 2nd and 3rd groups are three teams, the first group advances to the World Cup, and the second group qualifies for the play-offs. The four teams that qualified for the play-offs fought each other to determine the final place to play.
Panel 1 consists of Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Argentina are undoubtedly the absolute kings of this group, after all, they have Maradona in the seat, and they have also established the lead early with a wave of four consecutive wins. However, in the two-legged match against Peru, Argentina failed to win the opponent, first losing 0:1 away to the opponent, and then drawing 2-2 at home. However, Argentina still finished first in the group with 9 points and directly advanced to the World Cup, while Peru and Colombia were second and third to qualify for the play-offs.
Group 2 consisted of Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador. Although Uruguay were champions of the 1983 Copa America and had players like Francisco Scoli in the squad, their qualifier path was rather tortuous. The 2-0 away loss to Chile once put them in a passive position, but in the last game, they won 2:1 at home to Chile, and there was no danger to push the opponent directly to advance, and Chile finished second in the group stage and qualified for the play-offs.
The three teams in Group 3 are Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. Brazil were quite relaxed in this group, first in two away games 2-0 wins over Bolivia and Paraguay, which gave them the initiative to qualify, although in the next two games they drew 1-1 with both teams, they still advanced to the first place in the group, paraguay finished second in the group.
The first leg of the South American Qualifier Play-off began on 27 October 1985, with Chile playing Peru and Paraguay vs. Colombia, resulting in Chile 4–2 Peru and Paraguay 3–0 Colombia. The second leg was played on November 3, 1985, Peru lost 0:1 to Chile, Chile won both legs to advance to the next round, Colombia although 2:1 to Paraguay, but still lost the overall score, but was eliminated. In the final match, Paraguay first won 3:0, and then drew 2:2 away to Chile, winning the last place in South America.
In North and Central America, Mexico, as host, automatically gets a place, and the remaining teams will compete for a unique spot. The Central American competition is also three stages, the United States and other ten teams to fight each other, the winner advances to the next stage of the game. The United States, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti and Suriname each beat their opponents to advance.
The second stage is to divide the nine teams into three groups, the group double round robin, the first group advances to the next stage. Honduras, El Salvador and Suriname were placed in the first group. El Salvador and Suriname took the lead in the two matches, and Salvador gave their opponents two 3-0s, making an easy start. Honduras did not perform very well, facing Suriname only got a draw and a win, so the direct match between Honduras and Salvador, the old enemy, will definitely be able to qualify from this group, and as a result, Salvador lost to Honduras at home, and the away game was only 0:0, honduras finally surpassed El Salvador to advance to the next round.
Group 2 was a battle between Canada, Guatemala and Haiti. Although it was forced to draw 1-1 by Guatemala, with the remaining three games, Canada qualified strongly.
Group 3 is composed of the United States, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago. Costa Rica and the United States beat Tenellida and Tobago twice, making the last two games of the group crucial, resulting in Costa Rica first drawing 1-1 at home with the United States, and then winning 1-0 away from home to qualify from the group.
The final stage of the competition was also a three-team round robin tournament, the first in the group to qualify for the World Cup, the result of which Canada won the first place with two wins and two draws, the first time in the history of the team, and the only time so far to qualify for the World Cup.
The Qualifiers in the African Region are probably the simplest and most brutal of all continents in this World Cup, and the teams are fighting each other and starting to be eliminated, a total of four stages of competition, and the final stage of the four teams determines two places. In the end, Morocco and Algeria became the victors.