{"id":20741,"date":"2025-10-15T11:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=20741"},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:18:20","slug":"nigeria-to-face-gabon-in-world-cup-play-off-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/nigeria-to-face-gabon-in-world-cup-play-off-semifinal\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria to Face Gabon in World Cup Play-off Semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RABAT, Morocco (FN)<\/strong> \u2014 Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles will face Gabon in the semifinals of the African zone play-offs for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, following the conclusion of the group stage on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria advanced to the play-offs after a dominant 4\u20130 victory over Benin Republic, finishing second in their qualifying group. Gabon also progressed after a 2\u20130 win over Burundi, with results elsewhere \u2014 including Ivory Coast\u2019s win over Kenya \u2014 securing their place as one of the four best group runners-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Republic of Congo joined the play-off field with a 1\u20130 win over Sudan, finishing behind Senegal in Group B. Cameroon claimed second place in Group D behind Cape Verde, rounding out the quartet set for the play-off mini-tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tournament will take place in Morocco from Nov. 13 to 16, featuring single-leg semifinals and a final. The two semifinal winners will meet in a one-off final, with the winner advancing to the inter-confederation play-offs in March 2026. One final qualification spot is available via this route for an African team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria, projected to remain the highest-ranked team among the four when FIFA updates its rankings on Oct. 23, has been drawn to face the lowest-ranked side, Gabon. The other semifinal will see Cameroon face DR Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both semifinals are scheduled for Nov. 13, with the final taking place on Nov. 16. If necessary, matches will go to extra time and penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to announce host cities and stadiums in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine African teams have already secured direct qualification to the expanded 48-team World Cup to be held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The play-offs offer one additional path for an African nation to join them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RABAT, Morocco (FN) \u2014 Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles will face Gabon in the semifinals of the African zone play-offs for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, following the conclusion of the group stage on Tuesday. Nigeria advanced to the play-offs after a dominant 4\u20130 victory over Benin Republic, finishing second in their qualifying group. Gabon also progressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,4,5,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-featured","category-international","category-naija-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Super-Eagles-afcon.webp?fit=1170%2C1110&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20744,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20741\/revisions\/20744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}