South Africa return to World Cup after 16 years, Osimhen lifts Nigeria | OneFootball

South Africa returns to the World Cup sixteen years later. The Bafana Bafana thus become the 22nd national team to qualify for USA 2026, reaching a milestone that had been missing since 2010, the year they participated as the host country. To find a qualification achieved on the field, one must go back over twenty years, to the World Cup in Japan and Korea in 2002, which ended with elimination in the group stage.

Nigeria, Osimhen the driving force: the former Napoli player reaches Anguissa in the World Cup playoffs

The qualification came on the last day, at the end of an extremely balanced group decided by a double encounter: South Africa did their duty by beating Rwanda 3-0 in Johannesburg, but the real turning point came from Uyo, where Nigeria crushed Benin with a clear 4-0. The absolute protagonist, as often happens, was Victor Osimhen: the former Napoli striker scored a spectacular hat-trick (3’, 37’, 51’) before Onyeka's final seal in injury time, thus securing the Super Eagles second place in the group and, above all, granting South Africa direct qualification. Thanks to this result, Nigeria advances to the playoffs among the best African runners-up, where they will face Cameroon with Anguissa, Gabon, and Burkina Faso in a knockout mini-tournament (two semifinals and a final) that will award the last continental spot for the World Cup.

Final standings: South Africa 18 pts Nigeria 17 pts Benin 17 pts Lesotho 12 pts Rwanda 11 pts Zimbabwe 5 pts

Andrea Alati

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