- Eagles face rivals South Africa, Rohr’s Benin, others in Group C
Nigeria’s Super Eagles have been drawn in Group C for the CAF qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside South Africa, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Lesotho.
At the draw held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the qualification campaign will begin on November 13, 2023 and has thrown up an interesting challenge to the Super Eagles against arch rivals South Africa’s Bafana Bafana as well as a crunch encounter against neighbours Cheetahs of Benin Republic .
Of all the fixtures in Group C, the Nigeria vs. South Africa has been the commonest and fierce since both sides first met in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in 1992 for USA’ 94 finals when the Super Eagles drubbed Bafana Bafana 4-0 in Lagos and drew goalless in the reverse fixture in Johannesburg.
Nigeria equally beat South Africa in their two other World Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 win in Abuja and a 1-0 in Port Elizabeth in 2002.
Altogether, both countries have met 14 times in all completions and friendly matches with Nigeria claiming seven wins as against South Africa’s solitary 2-0 win in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June 2017.
It would also be equally an interesting matchup between Nigeria and the resurgent Benin now being coached by Super Eagles’ immediate manager, German coach Gernot Rohr.
But yesterday, the 54 nations of CAF learnt their qualification route for the next World Cup as the teams have been drawn into nine groups with winners in each group qualifying automatically for the finals, while the four best group runners-up will then compete in a play-off stage to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA play-off tournament.
The matches will take place over 10 matchdays for the next two years from November 13 to October 14, 2025, while the playoff will take place on November 10 to 18, 2025.
Qatar 22 semi-finalists Morocco will face Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger and Eritrea on the road to the Mundial after being drawn in Group E.
Senegal, who were beaten by England in the Round of 16 at the most recent edition, are in Group B and will tackle DR Congo, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan and South Sudan.
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).
Two of the six teams will be seeded 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.
2026 FIFA World Cup Draw
Group A
Egypt
Burkina Faso
Guinea-Bissau
Sierra Leone
Ethiopia
Djibouti
Group B
Senegal
Congo DR
Mauritania
Togo
Sudan
South Sudan
Group C
Nigeria
South Africa
Benin
Zimbabwe
Rwanda
Lesotho
Group D
Cameroon
Cabo Verde
Angola
Libya
Eswatini
Mauritius
Group E
Morocco
Zambia
Congo
Tanzania
Niger
Eritrea
Group F
Côte d’Ivoire
Gabon
Kenya
The Gambia
Burundi
Seychelles
Group G
Algeria
Guinea
Uganda
Mozambique
Botswana
Somalia
Group H
Tunisia
Equatorial Guinea
Namibia
Malawi
Liberia
São Tomé and Príncipe
Group I
Mali
Ghana
Madagascar
Central African Republic
Comoros
Chad