2026 FIFA World Cup: Super Eagles battle South Africa, Benin Republic, three others in qualifiers

After failing to make it to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, CAF has handed the Super Eagles a tricky route to the FIFA 2026 Mundial billed for the United States, Canada and Mexico.

During the draws held in Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday, the Super Eagles were placed in Group C.

In this group, they will face familiar opponents such as South Africa and their West African neighbours Benin Republic. Additionally, they will compete against three other South African countries, namely Rwanda, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe, for the sole automatic ticket available.

The group is tricky as Nigeria has to battle against familiar foes like South Africa’s Bafana Bafana and the Squirrels of Benin, who are coincidentally now handled by former Super Eagles coach, Genort Rohr, who was unceremoniously sacked from his job in December 2021.

Since making a debut appearance at the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the Super Eagles have qualified for all editions of the Mundial except in 2006 and Qatar 2022.

Apart from the Super Eagles’ Group C, there are eight other groups with six teams each, as 54 African teams enter the race to what will be the biggest FIFA World Cup.

How does qualifying work?

The FIFA website explains that the nine groups will play in a home and away, round-robin format, with each of the group winners qualifying automatically for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The four best group runners-up will then compete in a play-off stage against other countries to determine if Africa will get a 10th representative at the FIFA tournament.

The FIFA play-off tournament will feature one team from each of FIFA’s six confederations, except UEFA, plus one additional team from the host confederation (CONCACAF).

They will seed two of the six teams based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.

The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams.

The qualifying matches will take place over 10 matchdays during the next two years: 13–21 November 2023; 3–11 June 2024; 17–25 March 2025; 1–9 September 2025; 6–14 October 2025; and 10–18 November 2025.

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