The World Baseball Classic 2026 has already delivered a big surprise, when Venezuela defeated Italy in the semifinal and reached their first final at the top international baseball competition. Their rival? United States, which defeated Dominican Republic on their way to their third World Baseball Classic final in a row and their second title.
This is the first time Venezuela reaches the World Baseball Classic final, and only the second time they reach the final four (finished in third place in 2009), although there have only been six editions of this "baseball world cup" which effectively replaced the real Baseball World Cup that was held between 1938 and 2011, one dominated by Cuba that Venezuela won three times (and USA four times).
Italy was the only European team remaining in the competition since quarter-finals, winning all of their group stage games and later defeating one of the favourites, Puerto Rico, something that many described as a "fairy-tale run", given baseball is a much bigger sport in the Caribbean countries. Now they have the chance of being the only European team to win bronze in the World Baseball Classic (Netherlands finished in fourth place two editions in a row, 2013 and 2017).
2026 World Baseball Classic championship game between Venezuela and USA will be played on March 17 at 20:00 ET in Miami (01:00 AM CET of Wednesday in European time, 00:00 GMT).