Can Nigeria Achieve the World Cup Qualifying Results They Need?

The Nigerian men’s national football team are currently in fourth place (out of six teams) in Group C of the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifiers with just six points.

The question being asked here is whether Nigeria can achieve the World Cup qualifying results they need to make it through to the next phase of the competition. Let’s dive straight in to find out.

Can Nigeria make it to the FIFA 2026 World Cup finals in North America?

To progress to the next phase of the FIFA 2026 World Cup, Nigeria must win their group. However, with five games already played out of 10 group stage qualifying matches, they find themselves in fourth place behind third-place Rwanda, second-place Benin, and league leaders South Africa.

In other words, there is still a lot more work to do, and they will need the results to go their way in other group stage matches. There’s a good chance they might not qualify unless they can win their next five games and hope that South Africa, Benin and Rwanda lose or draw their remaining fixtures.

The other African Nations who also currently stand a good chance of progressing past the group stage are Egypt (top of group A), Sudan (top of group B) or DR Congo (both have 10 points), Cape Verde (top of group D), Morocco (top of group E), Ivory Coast (top of group F), Algeria (top of group G) or Mozambique (both have 12 points), Tunisia (top of group H), Ghana (top of group I), and Gabon (top of group J).

What are Nigeria’s chances of winning the World Cup if they make it to the final?

If you bet on sports in South Africa with 10bet – the country’s most trusted online bookmaker with some of the iGaming industry’s most highly competitive odds, you will see that Nigeria are currently one of the least favourite teams to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup outright.

However, despite being lower than South Africa in group C, according to most bookies, Nigeria still stand a better chance of winning the World Cup if they make it to the finals.
For example, if you were to place a wager right now on Nigeria winning the next World Cup, you are looking at average odds of around 751.00 decimal odds, which is 750/1 fractional odds.

In other words, they only have a 0.10% implied probability rate (IPR) of winning the competition outright, compared to South Africa’s 1,001.00 decimal odds, which is 1,000/1 in fractional odds, although both teams still have the same 0.1% implied probability rate of winning.

These odds tell us that neither team stands a chance of winning, but stranger things have happened in football, and don’t forget that the outsiders/underdogs can sometimes surprise everyone and upset the odds by beating the favourites.

Also, don’t forget that the odds-on favourites aren’t always guaranteed to win, and that the odds for any given betting market can change at any time without prior warning. If Nigeria make it to the final, these 751.00 (750/1) odds would likely be slashed to around 101.00 (100/1).

Recent results and upcoming fixtures

Nigeria’s latest World Cup qualifier group stage match was their fifth of ten matches. They beat Rwanda 2-0 on Friday, March 21, 2025, thanks to two goals from star forward Victor Osimhen (11’ and 45+3’)

Their next World Cup qualifier group stage match is against Zimbabwe on Tuesday, March 25. They must then wait until September 1 to play their next group stage qualifier match (matchday 7/10) against Rwanda, and then on September 8, they play South Africa (8/10).

They play match 9/10 against Lesotho on October 6 and the final group stage match (10/10) against Bening on October 13. Whether Nigeria can progress past the group stage remains to be seen.

As mentioned, they will need to win all five of their remaining fixtures and hope that South Africa, Benin, and Rwanda all lose/draw their remaining fixtures.

Final thoughts

A total of nine African nations are guaranteed entry to the World Cup finals in North America next year, but only the group stage winners can progress.

Nigeria have made it to the FIFA World Cup finals on six separate occasions (1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018), and their best-ever finish was in the 1994 World Cup when they came 9th.

They currently have a good squad and will be relying on big-named stars like Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi, Ola Aina, Wilfred Ndidi, Moses Simon, Maduka Okoye, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Stanley Nwabali, to name a few, to lead them to victory for the first time in World Cup history.