- Safiu Kehinde
The Democratic Republic of Congo has shattered Nigeria’s hope of qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a thrilling 4-3 victory via penalty shootout.
With both teams holding each other to a1-1 draw across the 90 minutes full time and 30 minutes extra time, the Africa’s World Cup Qualification play-off final was to be decided from the spot kick.
DR Congo who outplayed the Super Eagles in th second-half and 30 minutes extra time emerged victorious courtesy sudden death spot kick after both teams only managed to two goals apiece in the first five penalties.
Frank Onyeka opened the scoring for Nigeria in the 3rd minute before Mechak Elia equalised in the 32nd minute for the Leopards.
Nigeria and the DRC created scoring chances, with Tolu Arokodare’s header for Nigeria and Nwabali making a crucial save from the Leopards free kick in the final minutes of the extra time to push the game to the penalty shootout
Calvin Bassey and Moses Simon had missed their chances early in the match and Nwabali was at his best when he denied the leoprads their two penalty kicks.
Nwabali’s two saves in the shootout was not enough to cancel out misses from Calvin Bassey, Moses Simon and Semi Ajayi.
Chancel Mbemba scored the winning penalty kick to send the Leopards into the intercontinental playoffs for the World Cup.
Both Nigeria and the DRC advanced to the play-offs after finishing second in their respective qualifying groups, with the semi-finals and final staged in Morocco.
The victory sees the Central Africans progress to the final intercontinental qualifier which will be held next March.
The defeat marks Nigeria’s second consecutive failure at the play-off stage, following their loss to Ghana on away goals in the final qualifying round for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
It makes it the first time Nigeria have failed to qualify for two consecutive World Cups since the country’s debut in 1994.