World Cup Qualifier: Osimhen hattrick earns Nigeria a playoff spot

Nigeria's Super Eagles thrash Benin 4-0 to secure 2026 World Cup playoff spot amid Eritrea withdrawal drama; South Africa qualifies automatically.

Victor Osimhen drops a shoulder to fire in Nigeria's first goal, the first of his three against Benin Republic at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Tuesday to earn Nigeria a playoff spot. Nigeria won 4-0. (Photo credit: Al Jazeera)

The Super Eagles of Nigeria did the unthinkable on Tuesday at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, beating the Squirrels of the Benin Republic 4-0 to book a playoff spot for the 2026 World Cup.

Nigerians became overnight mathematicians earlier in the week, whipping out calculators to run permutations of possible qualifications for the 2026 World Cup. While it looked bleak considering the log standings, the Super Eagles found that the lines fell in pleasant places for Nigeria.

What was the situation?

The Republic of Benin led the group after beating Rwanda last weekend, and South Africa somehow failed to beat Zimbabwe despite playing the game on home turf. Nigeria was in third position, 3 points behind the Benin Republic and 1 point behind South Africa after beating Lesotho away from home.

Nigeria needed to beat the Republic of Benin by two goals in their final group game and then hope that South Africa didn’t win to advance as group winners, like it was in 2005 when Nigeria needed Rwanda to stop Angola from the 2006 World Cup; the same scenario played out again 20 years later.

The silver lining

Then Eritrea withdrew from the competition, and all teams had to lose the points they got against the bottom-placed teams in their respective groups so the teams in Eritrea’s group don’t get any unfair advantage; this worked in Nigeria’s favour.

What happened?

Despite Benin’s promises and early training, Victor Osimhen’s hattrick and a late goal from Frank Onyeka took the Squirrels to the cleaners, leaving Nigeria 4-0 winners; however, it wasn’t enough to get Nigeria to the World Cup automatically, as South Africa destroyed Rwanda 3-0.

South Africa qualified for the World Cup for the first time since doing so automatically as the hosts in 2010 after a great result at home against the Amavubi, surmounting a huge setback after being docked three points and three goals for fielding an ineligible player against Lesotho earlier in the campaign.

What happens next?

The Super Eagles will now go into a semifinal format playoff in Africa before heading to the intercontinental stage to earn the last ticket available for Africa. The three teams in the pool are Cameroon, Gabon and DR Congo.