Nigeria World Cup Playoff Qualifiers: The Real Battle Begins

The super eagles of Nigeria must go through the hard way to qualify for the 2026 world cup holding in Canada, Mexico and United States of America.

Nigeria failed to qualify as group winners therefore going through the playoff stages which include an inter-confederation playoff with teams from Asia, North, Central, and Carribean, South America, and Oceania.

The super eagles have played the first playoff match with Gabon, and it was an intense match. The match ended in a 1 – 1 draw at regular time before Nigeria went all Madrid on them in extra time to win 4 – 1.

Nigeria is now facing D.R. Congo today to decide who will represent Africa at the inter-confederation playoff.

Victor Osimhen

Source

Victor Osimhen has been the only bright light in the Nigeria team. His unavailability in the first 4 world cup qualifiers matches saw us fail to win any. As a matter of fact, out of 10 world cup qualifiers, Osimhen played just 5 and we won 4 out of the 5 he participated in compared to 4 draws and 1 loss out of the 5 he didn’t feature in.

So far so good in all the qualifiers, Nigeria have scored 19 goals in 12 matches with Victor Osimhen scoring 8 of those goals in just 6 matches he played. This shows the importance of Osimhen in Nigeria.

He missed some chances against Gabon but made amendment in the extra-time with 2 goals to give us a comfortable win. He will be crucial against D.R. Congo today.

Match Preview

This is a must win match for the super eagles if they hope to qualify for the world cup and it won’t come easy. Nigeria faces a solid DR Congo side who has lost just once in 2025 and that came against Senegal when they bottled a two-nil lead. Their record in the qualifiers is scary with 11 matches played and just 2 losses all with 1 goal difference. They have kept 7 cleansheets in those 11 matches.

This is a big headache for Nigeria who relies on only Victor Osimhen to do the wonders. It means if the DR Congo defenders can cage Osimhen, Nigeria will be left toiling without result.

The good news for Nigeria is we are slight favorites for this match and with DR Congo last world cup qualification being 1974 when they were still known as Zaire, Nigeria should be able to qualify.

It won’t be easy, but it is achievable.

It is a match between 2 teams with contrasting history but the same goal which is qualify for the world cup. Nigeria is looking to qualify after missing Qatar 2022 world cup. Nigeria is yet to miss 2 consecutive world cups since first qualifying in USA 1994 while DR Congo are yet to qualify for any world cup since 1974.

It will be a tight match, but I think the super eagles are in imperious form and the quality in the team will see them through.

Eric Chelle will likely go with the same formation and lineup he has been using in recent times, but I believe dropping Akor Adams for Tolu Arokodare and Lookman for Raphael Onyedika will be enough to see out the leopards of DR Congo.

There was a memo yesterday that Ndidi is cleared to play following his yellow against Gabon.

That means Ndidi and Onyedika can pair in the midfield with Chukwueze and Iwobi playing as side midfielders with Osimhen and Arokodare leading the line. The focus will be on Osimhen as usual, which will allow Tolu and the side midfielders to do harm. This is a conservative approach that balances things out because DR Congo must not be allowed to get the first goal.

I believe a Nigerian win in regular time is possible.