World Cup (Q): Nigeria’s last chance faces another test

The Nigeria national team are set to take on the Leopards of DR Congo in the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying playoff from the CAF region at the Stade Moulay El Hassan in Rabat, Morocco on Sunday.

 

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This match is currently the most important match of coach Eric Chelle’s career since taking charge of Nigeria on January 7, 2025.

The Super Eagles were put in Group C in the initial qualifying stage, a group which many had tipped Nigeria to qualify from with out any hitch. However, this was not the case as Bafana Bafana of South Africa snatched automatic qualification and Chelle’s side was left to make due with the playoffs.

A problem which was seen by most supporters of Nigeria was the change in coach at the helm of affairs for the three-time African champions, as they ran through three different coaches just to reach this stage.

Now, the quest for qualficiation is more complicated than it initially appeared. If the Super Eagles emerge as winners on Sunday, then the long journey continues on to the next stage.

With a victory, Nigeria will become Africa’s representative at an inter-continental qualifying playoff which will consist of countries from South America (CONMEBOL), Asia (AFC), Oceania (OFC) and two representatives from the North American region (CONCACAF) who will battle it out next year in Mexico.

Bolivia and New Caledonia have already qualified for the playoffs and will wait to see which other countries will join them.

The inter-confederation playoff tournament will be a single-elimination knockout event held in Mexico in March 2026.

The six nations will be split into two brackets based on the FIFA World Ranking, where the two highest-ranked teams are seeded and receive a bye directly to the final match of their bracket, while the remaining four unseeded teams compete in two single leg semifinals. The winner of each semifinal then advances to face one of the two seeded teams in a final, and the two winners of those finals secure the final places advance to join the rest of the expanded World Cup field.

If Nigeria survives all this, they will be the 10th African country to qualify for the tournament as Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia all prevously secured automatic qualification from the group stage.