Nigeria’s Super Eagles have been drawn in Group C alongside South Africa, Benin Republic, Rwanda, Lesotho and Zimbabwe for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The African qualification draw for the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted in USA, Mexico and Canada, was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday, 13 July, 2023.
It will be a reunion between the Super Eagles players and former coach Gernot Rohr who is the current handler of Benin Republic.
The German coach led the Eagles to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, where they crashed out at the group stage.
The last time the three-time AFCON champions faced South Africa in the World Cup qualifiers was the race to the 1994 edition.
Both teams clashed in the first round with the Eagles triumphing 4-0 in Lagos before holding South Africa to a goalless draw in Johannesburg.
Also, the Eagles faced Zimbabwe and Rwanda in the same qualifying group for the Germany 2026 World Cup.
The Eagles failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after losing to Ghana on goals difference (0-0 in Kumasi and 1-1 in Abuja).
Meanwhile, the first round games of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers will begin on November 13, 2023 and end November 18, 2025.
The qualification format adopted by CAF will see nine groups of six teams play in a home and away round-robin matches.
The group winners will qualify for the 2026 World Cup while the four best group runners-up will be drawn into play-offs to determine the CAF representative at the inter-confederation play-offs.
