African football powerhouse Senegal take on Sudan on Saturday night in a battle for supremacy of Group B in the qualifying campaign to play at the 2026 World Cup in United States, Canada and Mexico.
Sudan top the pool with 10 points after three wins and a draw. Senegal, the 2021 African champions, lie in third spot, two points behind following Democratic Republic of Congo's 1-0 win on Friday night over South Sudan.
"Morale is good," said Senegal boss Pape Thiaw. "We're talking about a place in the World Cup. So every match is a final. We're also on a run of two World Cups in a row and our ambition is to follow that up with a third. We'll be pulling out all the stops to win."
Senegal face Togo on Tuesday evening , while Sudan take on South Sudan and DRC face Mauritania.
"Absolutely nothing will be easy," added Thiaw who took over as head coach last December following Aliou Cissé's nine-year reign.
"But we are prepared. Our players understand the importance of what is at stake for our football, for our country and for themselves."
On Friday night, African champions Côte d’Ivoire took command of Group F with a 1-0 win over Burundi. Evann Guessand scored the only goal of the game in the 16th minute to put Emerse Faé's men on 13 points, one ahead of Gabon.
In Group I, Ghana thrashed bottom-of-the-table Chad 5-0. Antoine Semenyo got the hosts off to a perfect start in Accra with a goal in the second minute.
Inaki Williams doubled the advantage on the half hour mark and Jordan Ayew converted a penalty six minutes later to impose control on the encounter.
After the pause, Mohammed Salisu and Ernest Nuamah added the gloss.
Launch
In Group C, Nigeria rebooted their campaign with a 2-0 win over pacesetters Rwanda.
Star striker Victor Osimhen hit both goals in the first-half at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali to successfully launch Eric Chelle's reign as coach.
It was Nigeria's first win in the qualifiers and took them to fourth on six points – four behind the new group leaders South Africa who beat Lesotho 2-0.
Relebohile Mofokeng and Jayden Adams scored midway through the second-half to secure the points.
Coach Hugo Broos said his players were showing they had learned their lessons from the surge to the bronze medal at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
"You see that development in a game like this," said hte 71-year-old Belgian. "When what you see isn't beautiful, you have to fight and that is what we did and we have the three points which is what we like to have.
“We are first in the group. This is a good situation."
