Two of Africa’s football powerhouses Ivory Coast and Senegal have secured Africa’s last two automatic qualifying tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in north America,as both countries recorded wins on Tuesday.
The Teranga Lions as the Senegalese national team are called by their s and foes, secured a rousing 4-0 home victory over Mauritania to finish in first position in Group B.
A Sadio Mane free-kick put the dreaded Teranga Lions ahead on the stroke of half-time and the former Liverpool striker converted his second before Iliman Ndiaye added a fine solo effort and Habib Diallo finished off the scoring late on.
Senegal finished the qualifying campaign two points better than DR Congo, who pipped Sudan 1-0, all credits to Theo Bongonda’s first-half strike.
In another fixture on the motherland continent, Franck Kessie gave Ivory Coast an early lead against Kenya in Group F and teenager Yan Diomande rocketed in to double the lead on resumption of the second half.
Manchester United’s Amad curled in a fine free-kick to give the Elephants a 3-0 win in the capital city Abidjan.
That result meant the reigning continental champions finished a point ahead of Gabon, who saw off Burundi 2-0 in Franceville after late goals from Bryan Meyo and Mario Lemina.
The Ivorians, who return to the World Cup finals for the first time since 2014, went through the entire 10-game group campaign without conceding a goal, one of two nations on the continent to do so alongside Tunisia.
Ivory Coast and Senegal join Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde and South Africa in booking their ticket to next year’s World Cup finals.
One more country of the winners of next month’s continental play-offs, could join that group if they come tops in an inter-confederation tournament in March in 2026
Cameroon, DR Congo, Gabon and Nigeria finished as the four best-ranked second-placed sides across the nine groups and one of those sides will have the chance to become Africa’s 10th representative at the expanded 48-team World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
