Africa roars: Nine of ten teams reach the last 32 in the continent’s greatest World Cup

By MNTV Staff Writer

Africa has produced the finest collective group-stage performance in its World Cup history, with nine of the continent’s 10 representatives surging into the Round of 32 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Morocco, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Cape Verde, Senegal, Ghana, Algeria and DR Congo all booked their places in the knockout rounds.

Only Tunisia, beaten in all three of its matches in a brutal Group F, failed to advance — meaning a remarkable 90% of Africa’s participating teams reached the last 32, the first time the continent has ever sent so high a proportion through.

To grasp the scale of the leap, consider the history.

Before this tournament, the most African teams ever to reach the World Cup knockout stage in a single edition was just two — most recently Algeria and Nigeria in 2014.

This time, nine have gone through. More than 28% of all the teams still standing in the tournament are African.

How breakthrough was built

The expanded format played its part.

The 2026 tournament — the first hosted by three nations, the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the first to feature 48 teams across 104 matches — handed Africa 10 places, by far its largest-ever allocation and double the five slots it received in the old 32-team era.

With the top two from each of the 12 groups advancing alongside the eight best third-placed sides, the continent had both the numbers and the format to convert promise into progress.

But the depth of the achievement went well beyond arithmetic, because the stories behind the nine qualifications were as varied as the continent itself.

The history-makers

For three nations, this World Cup delivered something they had never known before.

South Africa reached the knockout stage for the very first time.

Bafana Bafana opened with a 2-0 defeat to co-hosts Mexico, recovered to draw 1-1 with Czechia through a late Teboho Mokoena penalty, and sealed their place with a nervy 1-0 win over South Korea, Thapelo Maseko striking in the 63rd minute.

DR Congo claimed their first World Cup victory in their own slice of drama, coming from behind to beat Uzbekistan 3-1 and book a heavyweight tie with England.

The Leopards’ squad is studded with players formed in English football, lending their last-32 meeting the feel of a derby.

Forward Yoane Wissa captured the continent’s new self-belief, telling ESPN that “every African team can dream big” after watching the next wave of young talent come through.

Then there is Cape Verde — the romance of the tournament. An archipelago of barely half a million people, appearing at a World Cup for the first time, the Blue Sharks went through unbeaten on the back of three draws, holding Spain 0-0 in an opener defined by goalkeeper Vozinha’s seven saves, then twice fighting back to draw with Uruguay.

In doing so they eliminated both Uruguay and Saudi Arabia and became one of the smallest nations ever to reach the World Cup knockouts.

Their reward: Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

The dramatists

If Cape Verde supplied the fairy tale, Senegal and Algeria supplied the theatre.

Senegal looked finished after losing their opening two matches to France and Norway, only to produce one of the performances of the tournament — a 5-0 demolition of Iraq that not only carried them through as a best third-placed team but set a new record for the biggest win by an African men’s side in World Cup history.

The Lions of Teranga now meet Belgium.

Algeria’s qualification was wilder still. Locked at 2-2 with Austria and seemingly content to settle, the Desert Foxes were lifted by a Riyad Mahrez strike deep into stoppage time — before Austria’s Sasa Kalajdzic headed an equaliser in the 96th minute.

The 3-3 draw sent both sides through. For older Algerian supporters, there was poetry in the opponent: 44 years after the infamous “Disgrace of Gijón,” when Austria and West Germany were accused of engineering a result that eliminated Algeria from the 1982 World Cup, it was a draw with Austria that finally carried them onward.

They face Switzerland next.

The standard-bearers

Leading the charge, as he has all tournament, is Morocco — the team that four years ago became the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final, and which arrived in North America ranked a record fifth in the world.

The Atlas Lions held Brazil to a 1-1 draw on their way to second place in Group C and a daunting meeting with the Netherlands.

As co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup, they carry the continent’s deepest ambitions.

Egypt, too, made history of their own, recording the first World Cup match win in their history before clinging to a chaotic runners-up finish in Group G; they face Australia, though talisman Mohamed Salah is a doubt with a hamstring concern.

Ivory Coast, the reigning African champions, advanced with composure to set up a tie with Norway, while Ghana navigated a competitive group to earn an all-continents clash with Colombia.

The lone exit and verdict

Only Tunisia broke the run, their three straight defeats a reminder that the margins remain unforgiving.

But against the backdrop of eight other nations advancing, even that could not dim the moment.

Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe was quick to frame the achievement as the dividend of long-term planning rather than a fluke.

In an official statement congratulating the nine sides, he said the continent’s sustained investment in youth football, coaching, professional leagues and infrastructure across CAF’s 54 member associations was “bearing fruit,” and credited improved governance with attracting the sponsors and partners that have fuelled the game’s growth.

The players, he added, had made proud not only their countries but the 1.6 billion people of Africa and its diaspora.

Road ahead

The knockout rounds are now underway, and the nine African sides have been handed a spread of ties ranging from the winnable to the formidable: South Africa met Canada, Morocco face the Netherlands, Ivory Coast take on Norway, Egypt play Australia, Cape Verde meet Argentina, Senegal face Belgium, Ghana play Colombia, Algeria take on Switzerland, and DR Congo square up to England.

Not all will survive the next round — the draw guarantees as much. But the headline is already written. In the first World Cup of the 48-team era, Africa did not merely show up to make up the numbers; it arrived in force, broke its own records, and served notice that the question is no longer whether an African nation can reach the latter stages, but how far one can go.

Four years after Morocco’s run to the semi-finals, the continent has nine teams chasing the answer.

This story is part of Muslim Network TV’s ongoing coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.