Iran vs. New Zealand: How to watch, date, time, live stream and TV channel for 2026 World Cup fixture

Iran and New Zealand will raise the curtain on their respective World Cup 2026 bids on Tuesday.

They will do battle in the first round of group-stage fixtures in Group G, with group favourites Belgium and Egypt facing off in the other opening game.

Here, Sports Mole provides details of how to tune into the contest.

What time does Iran vs. New Zealand kick off?

The World Cup match will kick off at 2am UK time on Tuesday morning.

Where is Iran vs. New Zealand being played?

The World Cup fixture between Iran and New Zealand is being held at Los Angeles Stadium, located in Inglewood, California.

The stadium is the home of NFL teams Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers and boasts a 70,240 capacity.

This will be the second of eight World Cup games hosted at Los Angeles Stadium, after it previously hosted USA's opener on home soil against Paraguay in the third game of the tournament.

Los Angeles Stadium will go onto host three more group games after Tuesday's meeting, followed by two round-of-32 matches and a quarter-final.

How to watch Iran vs. New Zealand in the UK

TV channels

The World Cup contest will be available on BBC One.

All 104 matches at this summer's competition are on free-to-air TV for UK viewers, split between ITV and BBC.

Online streaming

UK viewers can stream the game live on BBC iPlayer, which is available on a wide range of devices including desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets.

Highlights

Highlights of the game will be available on BBC iPlayer, ITVX, as well as their respective X, Facebook and YouTube channels.

TikTok will also, for the first time ever, have highlights of every match.

What is at stake for Iran and New Zealand?

Iran and New Zealand both head into their World Cup openers aiming to gain an early edge in a tough group before heading into testing games against Belgium and Egypt.

Iran cruised through Asian qualifying in dominant fashion to reach a fourth consecutive World Cup, but they will now hope to get out of the group stage for the first time in that run having failed to do so in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

New Zealand, meanwhile, are returning to the global stage for the first time since 2010, when they drew all three group-stage games and dropped out, having comfortably seen off Fiji and New Caledonia in the final stages of qualifying to book their place in the summer's tournament under Darren Bazeley.

With the expanded World Cup format now allowing for eight of 12 third-placed teams to progress out the groups, the nations will both search for a crucial opening victory that may put them within touching distance of progressing as part of a top three.

> Our full preview of Iran vs New Zealand can be found here