{"id":172092,"date":"2025-11-16T22:21:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/nigeria-beaten-by-dr-congo-on-penalties-to-end-world-cup-2026-hopes-live-updates-and-reaction-the-athletic-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T22:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:21:04","slug":"nigeria-beaten-by-dr-congo-on-penalties-to-end-world-cup-2026-hopes-live-updates-and-reaction-the-athletic-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/nigeria-beaten-by-dr-congo-on-penalties-to-end-world-cup-2026-hopes-live-updates-and-reaction-the-athletic-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria beaten by DR Congo on penalties to end World Cup 2026 hopes: Live updates and reaction – The Athletic – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

International Football
2026 World
Cup Countdown
live
Updated 14s ago<\/span>
Nigeria<\/a> will not play at the 2026 World Cup after they were beaten 4-3 on penalties by DR Congo in a play-off in Rabat.<\/strong>
It was the second time they had gone past normal time in this international break, but there were no extra-time heroics this time around after a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes.
DR Congo have progressed to the inter-confederation play-offs that will be played in March 2026.
GO FURTHER
DR Congo beat Nigeria on penalties to reach a World Cup play-off: Fredrick\u2019s tough task, Osimhen missed
Short and sweet from Nigeria's official account on X.
The Athletic<\/strong><\/em> outlines all the key talking points, below.<\/em>
GO FURTHER
DR Congo beat Nigeria on penalties to reach a World Cup play-off: Fredrick\u2019s tough task, Osimhen missed
What an outstanding shootout from DR Congo goalkeeper Timothy Fayulu.
The 26-year-old, in just his second cap, came up huge at the pressure moments despite only coming on with seconds to go before full time.
He made two saves and helped put off some of the other takers, too, with a sizeable presence between the sticks.
Heroic.
Nigeria qualified for six of the seven World Cups between 1994 and 2018.
After failing to qualify in 2022, tonight's defeat means they will miss consecutive World Cups for the first time since 1990.
When you consider that there could be double the amount of African teams next summer than there were in Qatar, this a huge failure from Eric Chelle and his players.
William Troost-Ekong and Akor Adams are in tears as Nigeria walk off the pitch.
Nigeria have ultimately been punished for a poor start to their qualification campaign.
Three draws and a defeat from their first four games.
They miss out on successive World Cups.
DR Congo captain Chancel Mbemba scored a last-minute winner for his nation to beat Cameroon in the semi-final and has now just scored the winning penalty for DR Congo to eliminate Nigeria in the final.
Not a bad three days for the centre-back.
Nigeria's head coach Eric Chelle had to be separated from DR Congo's coaching staff.
Emotions are understandably extremely high but DRC deserve to go through. They were the better side.
The squad are going absolutely wild in front of their supporters.
Mbemba, the captain who scored the winner against Cameroon in Thursday's semifinal, strikes again.
The players, the fans. They all look gutted.
The contrast in emotion so close on the field is stark.
Chancel Mbemba. Who else?
The captain, on his 101st international appearance, has stepped up at a crucial time and slammed it in.
High, central, no keeper is saving that.
The DRC march on to the intercontinental playoffs.
But DR Congo might!
The celebrations are absolutely wild here in Rabat!
It all comes down to this.
And it's DR Congo's captain, Chancel Mbemba. Of course. Water bottles thrown onto the pitch…
AND HE SCORES IT!
Nigeria<\/strong>: 3 ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
DR Congo<\/strong>: 4 ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅
Semi Ajayi, the centre-half… but it's saved!
DR Congo can win it with their next kick!
Nigeria<\/strong>: 3 ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
DR Congo<\/strong>: 3 ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅ –
Side netting, top corner. Perfection.
Three apiece after five.
Now to sudden death.
Nigeria<\/strong>: 3 ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ –
DR Congo<\/strong>: 3 ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅ –
Incredible composure from Ejuke who scores even though some idiot threw a water bottle at him during his run up.
Osimhen goes wild on the touchline at the fourth official.
Chidera Ejuke gets an encouraging word in the ear from team-mate Stanley Nwabali.
He steps up, ignores a water bottle thrown onto the pitch, and slides it in!
DR Congo must<\/em> score or they will not be going to the World Cup.
Nigeria<\/strong>: 3 ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅
DR Congo<\/strong>: 2 ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ –
Sub striker Fiston Mayele… into the corner. Sent Nwabali the wrong way. Cool.
Nigeria<\/strong>: 2 ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ –
DR Congo<\/strong>: 2 ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅ –
Bruno Onyemaechi steps up, fine penalty, same place as Akor Adams. Top right corner and though Fayulu went the right way he had no chance.
Best penalty of the lot.
Pressure back on DR Congo…
Nigeria<\/strong>: 2 ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ –
DR Congo<\/strong>: 1 ❌ ✅ ❌ – –
Nwabali's second save of the shootout as he dives left and denies Tuanzebe!
We're all square at one apiece after three penalties each!
Nigeria<\/strong>: 1 ❌ ❌ ✅ – –
DR Congo<\/strong>: 1 ❌ ✅ ❌ – –<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International Football2026 WorldCup CountdownliveUpdated 14s agoNigeria will not play at the 2026 World Cup after they were beaten 4-3 on penalties by DR Congo in a play-off in Rabat.It was the second time they had gone past normal time in this international break, but there were no extra-time heroics this time around after a 1-1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}