Rival’s punishment gives Nigeria new hope in World Cup qualifiers group | OneFootball

Nigeria, with Osimhen, Lookman & Co., has gone from being virtually eliminated in the African Qualifiers to a team with real chances of going to the 2026 World Cup.

FIFA confirmed on Monday (29) the punishment for South Africa, the then leader of Group C, due to the irregular lineup of Teboho Mokoena in the 2 x 0 victory over Lesotho, on March 21.

South Africa can still appeal.

The presence of the midfielder, who should have served a suspension in the fifth round match, turned the aforementioned victory into a 3 x 0 defeat.

The Bafana Bafana were leading the group with 17 points and a goal difference of eight. But they now have 14 points and a goal difference of three.

This allowed the Benin team to take the first position and ensured the "rebirth" of Nigeria.

Before the punishment, the Super Eagles were six points behind the only team that would directly qualify for the World Cup with two rounds remaining.

See the rules of the Qualifiers below.

📊 Updated standings

Benin 🇧🇯 - 14 points - Four wins, two draws, and two losses. Balance +4

South Africa 🇿🇦 - 14 points - Four wins, two draws, and two losses. Balance +3

Nigeria 🇳🇬 - 11 points - Two wins, five draws, and one loss. Balance +2

Rwanda 🇷🇼 - 11 points - Three wins, two draws, and three losses. Balance zero

Lesotho 🇱🇸 - 9 points - Two wins, three draws, and three losses. Balance -3

Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 - 4 points - Four draws and four losses. Balance - 8

📅 Remaining matches

South Africa and Nigeria - who drew 1 x 1 in the last round - will play away games next Sunday (5).

The Bafana Bafana will face Zimbabwe.

The Super Eagles will face Lesotho.

Benin, on the other hand, will visit Rwanda - another team that was thankful for the punishment.

The final round will be on the following Sunday (12) and will have Nigeria 🆚 Benin, South Africa 🆚 Rwanda, Lesotho 🆚 Zimbabwe.

The fight in this group is for the leadership, as other second-placed teams have good scores at this moment.

Cases of Burkina Faso (15), DR Congo (16), Cameroon (15), Gabon (19) Uganda (15), Equatorial Guinea (16) and Madagascar (16)

Regulations📝

Fifty-three teams were divided into nine groups.

Only the team leading each group will go directly to the World Cup.

The four best second-placed teams secure their place in the African playoffs.

Which will determine the Continent's representative in the world playoffs.

There will be six teams vying for two World Cup spots and so far only New Caledonia is guaranteed.

Only the teams from Morocco and Tunisia are qualified so far.

All qualified 👇🏽

AFC - Asia

🇦🇺 Australia - 🇰🇷 South Korea - 🇮🇷 Iran - 🇯🇵 Japan - 🇯🇴 Jordan (debutant) - 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan (debutant)

CAF - Africa

🇲🇦 Morocco - 🇹🇳 Tunisia

Concacaf - Central and North America

🇨🇦 Canada (host country) - 🇺🇸 United States (host country) - 🇲🇽 Mexico (host country)

Conmebol - South America

🇦🇷 Argentina - 🇧🇷 Brazil - 🇨🇴 Colombia - 🇪🇨 Ecuador - 🇵🇾 Paraguay - 🇺🇾 Uruguay

OFC - Oceania

🇳🇿 New Zealand

Allocation of spots

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

📸 PHILL MAGAKOE - AFP or licensors