2026 FIFA World Cup Play-off Final: Super Eagles, Leopards set for explosive duel in Rabat

Super Eagles and the Democratic Republic of Congo will go to battle on Sunday night for the lone ticket from Africa to the six-team 2026 FIFA World Cup Intercontinental Playoff Finals in March, from where two teams will bag tickets to next year’s FIFA World Cup finals, Nigeriasoccernet.com reports.

The potentially-explosive encounter inside the Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay El Hassan will see the Leopards, who last attended football’s biggest houseparty in 1974, try to halt the strong march of the Super Eagles to a seventh finals since 1994.

While there were robust back-and-forths between the Eagles and the Panthers in Thursday’s semi-final, as well as eye-catching ding-dongs in regulation time, Nigeria eased into gear five in extra time and completely left their opponents for dead as they stormed to a 4-1 win.

Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions created more chances in the second semi-final but frittered them away, leaving Chancel Mbemba to give them a sucker punch in added time, with his powerful header from Brian Cipenga’s corner that sent the Leopards to Sunday’s Final.

The Leopards, champions of Africa in 1968 and 1974, crashed out at group stage in Germany in 1974, losing all three matches, including a better-forgotten 9-0 thumping by then Yugoslavia in Gelsenkirchen – where they were also beaten 3-0 by Brazil. They also lost 0-2 to Scotland in Dortmund.

Nigeria have reached the Round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup in three of their six appearances, and famously topped a group including Argentina in their debut 31 years ago. They are also three-time champions of Africa.

The Leopards are managed by 49-year- old Sébastien Desabre, a French national, who has ample North African ground and environmental experience having had stints with Wydad Athletic Club of Casablanca (Morocco), and also with the trio of Espérance Sportive de Tunis and Ismaily FC and Pyramids FC in Egypt.

He comes up against Franco-Malian Éric Sékou Chelle, Nigeria’s 48-year-old manager, who remains unbeaten in five competitive matches for the Super Eagles in this race, and has told his players to buckle up and get the job done on Sunday, and leave themselves with only one match to play at the Intercontinental Playoffs to make it to the big rumble in the USA, Canada and Mexico next year.

Chelle’s record with Nigeria is four wins and a draw, with 14 goals pumped into the opponents’ net and four conceded, and most Nigerians are agreed that were he the one who managed the qualifying campaign from the beginning, the Eagles would have nicked an automatic ticket and have no need to come to the playoffs.

Already qualified for the Intercontinental Playoffs, scheduled for the Mexican cities of Guadalajara and Monterrey in March, are Bolivia and New Caledonia, with Iraq, Jamaica and Panama also well-placed to make it.

However, Nigeria and Panama are the highest-ranked of the six, and will each be seeded to play only one match (the two Final matches), after the other four had battled out semi-final matches.

Credit: NFF