Asia and South America’s qualification campaigns for the 2026 World Cup have already begun, and Africa’s is set to begin on Wednesday.
The gruelling two-year campaign is widely seen as the hardest in world football, with 53 sides being split into nine groups and only the winners of each group being guaranteed a place in the tournament.
There is the potential for one more space where the four best runners-up from Africa’s qualifying will play in a mini-tournament to place the winner into an intercontinental playoff tournament which will determine the final two places in the World Cup.
The first of these 250 games take place on Wednesday, and we’ve picked out our top tips and booking code for these opening four games:
Equatorial Guinea to win, 1.78
Equatorial Guinea are coming into this game in great form as they are unbeaten in seven games, with three wins and four draws in this time. Juan Micha’s side have gone nearly two years since they last lost a game at home and with opponents Namibia being 23 places below them in the FIFA rankings, they’ll certainly be coming into this game with the confidence to take a victory.
Rwanda to win, 2.17
Rwanda come into this game having grabbed a draw against Senegal in their last game thanks to a 96th minute equaliser from Olivier Niyonzima. This draw helped to stop Rwanda from losing three straight games, but it does leave them still without a win in 2023. Zimbabwe also drew their last game against Botswana, with this being the first game that Zimbabwe have played in 2023 due to being disqualified from the Africa Cup of Nations qualification stages.
With this being just the second game of the year for Zimbabwe, we expect that they will be quite rusty coming into this one and so expect the home side to win.
DR Congo to win, 1.46
DR Congo are coming into this game in fine form and with bags of confidence as they managed to secure their place in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. After losing their first two games it looked as though they may miss out on back-to-back tournaments, but four wins from their next four secured their place at the top of the group with two points more than second place Mauritania.
However, since securing top spot DR Congo have gone winless in three games with a loss against South Africa and then draws to both New Zealand and Angola respectively.
With them finally returning home for this upcoming game, where they have lost just one of their last eight games, DR Congo will be confident of taking all three points. And with the firepower that they boast compared to Mauritania, we fully expect them to take the victory.
Sierra Leone to win, 2.24
Both sides are coming into this one on the back of disappointing Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaigns, with both teams unable to advance to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. Sierra Leone picked up just five points from their six games as they finished third in the group, eight points behind second place, while Ethiopia finished rock bottom of their group with just four points.
This game will therefore be a chance to boost spirits within the squad and both teams will be hungry for a win. However, with Ethiopia at home and Sierra Leone’s poor away form, losing four of their last five, we believe Ethiopia will be victorious in this one.
Booking Code: 5Q8ZP9D (odds: 12.63)
