The Democratic Republic of Congo got the better of Jamaica in the dispute for the penultimate place in the 2026 World Cup. In Zapopan, Mexico, they won 1-0 and advanced. The 48th and final place will be defined in a game scheduled for the Brazilian dawn of Wednesday (1st), starting at midnight: Bolivia x Iraq, in Guadeloupe, also in Mexico.
The two matches are valid for the global playoff round, created to define the last classified in the main football tournament on the planet – which this year will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada. One of them was the Democratic Republic of Congo, which participated in the 1974 World Cup as Zaire.
Due to being better ranked, the African team (49th on the FIFA list) came out with a round advantage in the seeding. Jamaica (68th) had to beat New Caledonia (151st) 1-0 to reach the decisive clash, held at the Akron stadium, on the outskirts of Guadalajara.
The Congolese team sought to impose their technical superiority and remained on the attack for most of the game. He was close to the goal with Elia’s shot at the post and found the net twice, but both shots were ruled offside.
The match then went into extra time. And the insistence of the team led by Frenchman Sébastien Desabre finally bore fruit ten minutes into the first half of extra time. After a corner kick from the left and a slight deflection from the defense, Tuanzebe counted on luck to reach the goal.
It wasn’t even exactly a shot, as the ball hit his body and went in. After a long video check, the referee came to the conclusion that the touch was made with the knee, not the arm, and validated the move that took the Central African nation to Group K of the World Cup, alongside Portugal, Uzbekistan and Colombia.
In the second extra time, Argentine referee Facundo Tello felt an injury to his left calf and had to be replaced by his compatriot Darío Herrera, who was in the match as fourth referee.
It will be the second World Cup for the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the first, 52 years ago, the country played under the name it officially had from 1971 to 1997. One of its opponents at the time was Brazil: the then three-time world champions won 3-0, goals from Jairzinho, Rivellino and Valdomiro. Also defeated by Scotland (2-0) and Yugoslavia (9-0), Zaire was eliminated in the first phase.
