Nigeria vs DR Congo live: Latest score and updates from World Cup 2026 play-off

With qualifying mostly wrapping up this week – having done so much earlier in some areas – here’s the full breakdown of which teams have qualified for the World Cup so far.

Only New Zealand have qualified from the Oceania group, with the All Whites having benefitted from the extended tournament to take the federation’s only automatic qualification place for the first time.

In South America, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay have all secured a place at the tournament, and they could be joined by Bolivia.

In Asia, eight qualification spots were cup for grabs, and they have gone to Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Among the Concacaf sides, USA, Canada and Mexico qualified automatically as co-hosts, with the other three spots still up for grabs.

And in Europe, England have been joined by France and Croatia so far, with several groups settled today and over the coming days.

As mentioned above, the winner of tonight’s match will go into the inter-confederation play-offs, which take place in Mexico next year.

They will face off against teams from other continents in order to decide the final two qualification spots for next year’s tournament.

They will be the only African team at the play-offs, while there will be one team from the Asian Football Confederation, one team from the Oceanic Football Confederation, one team from Conmebol (South America) and two teams from Concacaf, the North & Central American federation.

Currently, Bolivia have taken the Conmebol place while minnows New Caledonia will represent the Oceanic region.

Panama and Jamaica are well-placed to fight out for the Concacaf spots, while the UAE face Iraq in the second leg of their play-off on 18 November to decide the Asian representative.

The teams who finished top of each CAF qualifying group secured automatic qualification for the World Cup, while the best-ranked second-place sides – which were Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon and DR Congo – went into the play-offs in order to secure a spot in the inter-confederation play-offs, which take place next year.

The African countries who have secured qualification are:

• Egypt
• Senegal
• South Africa
• Cape Verde
• Morocco
• Ivory Coast
• Algeria
• Tunisia
• Ghana

Nigeria XI: Nwabali; Ajayi, Fredrick, Bassey, Sanusi; Onyeka, Ndidi, Iwobi; Lookman, Osimhen, Chukwueze.

Subs: Okoye, Ekong, Ejuke, Adams, Arokodare, Simon, Onyemaechi, Abdullahi, Obasogie, Osayi, Adike, Awaziem.

The line-ups should be released in the next five minutes or so, so here’s a reminder of the early team news.

Nigeria boss Eric Chelle has close to a full-strength squad available, welcoming Ademola Lookman back from suspension to join Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze in attack. The only injury involving the Super Eagles regards Ola Aina, who has been out for a couple of months.

DR Congo will continue to bemoan the absence of Yoane Wissa, though their attacking threat isn’t exactly non-existent with Cedric Bakambu up top, who is two goals shy of the nation’s all-time record holder Dieumerci Mbokani. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, relatively fresh off changing allegiances from England back in August, will also be expected to start.

The 48 nations competing at the 2026 World Cup will discover their group stage opponents when the draw takes place on 5 December.

The tournament will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanded from 32 in Qatar, and will also be the first World Cup to be hosted by three countries. The majority of 104 games will be staged in the USA (78), with Mexico and Canada hosting 13 each.

The World Cup will begin on 11 June in Mexico’s historic Azteca Stadium, the scene of Brazil’s 1970 glory inspired by Pele and Argentina’s success in 1986 led by Diego Maradona.

It will conclude with the final on 19 July at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Here is everything you need to know.

World Cup qualifying is hurtling towards a conclusion with some of the final places ahead of the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico up for grabs over the coming days.

So far, 30 teams have booked their places in what has already been a historic campaign for three first-time qualifiers, with Jordan, Uzbekistan and the Cape Verde islands all through to the 48-team finals.

England, France and Croatia are the only European teams to have qualified so far but the other nine group winners will be gradually confirmed in the next few days as the first round of qualifying finally concludes.

Elsewhere, we have largely reached play-off time across the rest of the world; and that’s before the rest of the European play-offs and inter-continental play-offs in March.

The match will kick off at 7pm GMT (UK time) on Sunday 16 November.

Viewers in the United Kingdom can watch the match live for free via the Fifa+ streaming service.

Nigeria boss Eric Chelle has close to a full-strength squad available, welcoming Ademola Lookman back from suspension to join Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze in attack. The only injury involving the Super Eagles regards Ola Aina, who has been out for a couple of months.

DR Congo will continue to bemoan the absence of Yoane Wissa, though their attacking threat isn’t exactly non-existent with Cedric Bakambu up top, who is two goals shy of the nation’s all-time record holder Dieumerci Mbokani. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, relatively fresh off changing allegiances from England back in August, will also be expected to start.