Nigeria may be absent from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but one of the Super Eagles’ most celebrated achievements survived a potential challenge this week when Cape Verde’s historic run through the group stage fell just short of erasing a record the green and white have held for 26 years, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
- +Nigeria’s 1998 record stands as round 32 begins
Cape Verde, ranked 64th in the world coming into the tournament, stunned the football world by navigating Group H without a defeat, picking up three draws against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to finish second on three points and book a place in the Round of 32.
Cape Verde, ranked 64th in the world coming into the tournament, stunned the football world by navigating Group H without a defeat, picking up three draws against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to finish second on three points and book a place in the Round of 32.
The achievement made the Blue Sharks only the third-lowest ranked nation to reach the knockout rounds since FIFA introduced its ranking system in 1994, a remarkable feat for a country of roughly 525,000 people making their first-ever appearance at a World Cup.
Yet for all the scale of Cape Verde’s accomplishment, it was not enough to displace Nigeria at the top of that particular piece of history.
The Super Eagles, who entered the 1998 World Cup in France ranked 74th in the world, ten places below Cape Verde’s current position, went on not merely to qualify from the group stage but to top Group D, defeating Spain 3-2 in one of the finest individual match performances by an African nation in World Cup history and finishing ahead of Paraguay and Bulgaria.
Nigeria’s ranking at the time had been suppressed by a two-year suspension imposed by the Confederation of African Football, but the quality on the pitch was beyond question. The Super Eagles remain the lowest-ranked nation ever to advance from the group stage in the modern FIFA ranking era, a record that now stands alongside Cape Verde’s achievement.
Nigeria’s broader historical footprint at World Cups adds further context to the scale of what was achieved in France. In April 1994, following the Super Eagles’ Africa Cup of Nations triumph and their qualification for their first-ever World Cup, Nigeria climbed to fifth in the FIFA world rankings, the highest position any African nation has ever occupied.
On Sunday (today), the round of 32 begins in earnest with South Africa taking on Canada at SoFi Stadium in California, a fixture that carries its own measure of historical significance.
Bafana Bafana, who become the first South African side to reach the knockout rounds of a World Cup, face co-hosts Canada in what will also be the first competitive match between the two nations. Their only previous meeting was a 2-0 South African victory in a friendly in November 2007.
South Africa recovered from a 2-0 opening defeat to Mexico with a draw against the Czech Republic and a crucial 1-0 victory over South Korea to finish second in Group A on four points. Canada, who were the more fancied side coming into the group stage, also finished second with four points after winning their opener against Qatar 6-0 but losing their final group match 2-1 to Switzerland. The winner of Sunday’s contest will face either the Netherlands or Morocco in the Round of 16.
