DR Congo fired up to face Jamaica in FIFA Play-Off – Desabre

DR Congo national team coach Sebastien Desabre has revealed their readiness to achieve their main objective when they face Jamaica in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Play-Off at Guadalajara Stadium on March 31.

Representing Concacaf, Jamaica booked their place in the first final pathway on Thursday following their 1-0 defeat of New Caledonia in Guadalajara, and face a Congo DR side from CAF that qualified automatically for the match based on the strength of their position in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking.

[🎥 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄́𝐎 🐆]

𝐒𝐔𝐑 𝐋’𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈̂𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐋𝐄́𝐎𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 – VENDREDI 27 MARS 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 🇨🇩

Une séance rythmée et studieuse à Guadalajara 🇲🇽, avec un groupe pleinement impliqué dans le travail. 💪🏾🐆

Discipline, engagement et envie se font… pic.twitter.com/dc4dbjR7ne

— Fecofa RDC_Officiel (@FecofaRdc) March 28, 2026

The winners of the tie will advance to FIFA World Cup 2026 Group K, which features Colombia, Portugal and tournament debutants Uzbekistan, with six matches pencilled in for Atlanta, Guadalajara, Houston (two), Miami and Mexico City.

DR Congo still on course to achieve objective

“We’re really fired up. We’re still on course to meet our main objective,” Desabre told FIFA.com after learning of Jamaica as their opponent for the final Play-Off.

The Frenchman added: “That’s the goal we set ourselves when I took this job three-and-a-half years ago. This final will be our 13th match since our qualifying campaign began.”

Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake admitted they were anticipating a difficult game against the Leopards. He said: “It’s going to be a tough game.

“There are some things we are going to have to work on, but the next one, it doesn’t matter how, we just need to win the game and we are looking forward to it.”

First meeting between the two sides

This will be the first match between DR Congo and Jamaica. DR Congo’s only previous official ‘A’ match against a Concacaf team was a 2-1 away defeat to Mexico in a May 2006 friendly (they also played Bermuda on March 2026 in Guadalajara and won 2-0.

The Leopards finished second in their section behind Senegal and then promptly eliminated continental giants Cameroon and Nigeria in the CAF play-offs to secure their spot in the Play-Off Tournament.

DR Cono are desperate to make a comeback to the global showpiece that will take place from June 11th to July 19th, 2026, and will be jointly hosted by sixteen cities – 11 in the United States, three in Mexico, and two in Canada.

The tournament will be the first FIFA World Cup to be hosted by three nations, and the first to include 48 teams, an expansion from 32.