Why Nigeria qualified for World Cup play-offs ahead of Burkina Faso | OneFootball

Burkina Faso narrowly missed out on qualification after a four-star Nigeria performance

Nigeria are set to face Gabon in a World Cup play-off semi-final next month, leaving Burkina Faso to feel hard done by.

Perhaps none more so than the battle to finish as one of the best runners-up. After beating Ethiopia on Monday night, Burkina Faso were in pole position to claim one of the four spots, though their 3-1 win left the door ajar for the Super Eagles.

Nigeria, themselves, had eyes on topping Group C as they welcomed Benin to the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium on Tuesday evening.

But with South Africa brushing aside Rwanda 3-0 to qualify for the World Cup - for the first time since 2010 - as group winners, attentions turned towards a play-off spot for Eric Chelle’s side.

Leading 3-0 thanks to Victor Osimhen’s stunning hat-trick, Nigeria needed to score another to eliminate Burkina Faso and Brentford midfielder Frank Onyeka came up with the all important goal in stoppage time.

As a result, the Super Eagles sealed a spot as one of the four best runners-up in CAF qualification by virtue of a superior goal difference to Burkina Faso after the two nations finished level on points.

However, there has been some confusion around why Les Etalons missed out on a play-off spot given they accumulated more points than Nigeria (21) and had a better goal difference (+15) in Group A.

Why Nigeria qualified for World Cup play-offs ahead of Burkina Faso?

After Eritrea - initially placed in Group E - withdrew from qualifying before playing a game, it was determined results against the sixth-placed teams in each group were discounted to determine the four best runners-up.

Therefore, Burkina Faso’s wins over Djibouti home and away ultimately counted for nothing as was their goal difference of +9 after scoring 10 and conceding just once across the two games.

So, the 21 points Burkina Faso accumulated dropped to 15 and their goal difference went from +15 to +6 with Onyeka’s stoppage time strike for Nigeria proving decisive.

Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon and DR Congo will play a mini tournament in Morocco in November to determine a single team that will go on to compete in an inter-continental playoff in March for a place at the 2026 World Cup.