Tunisia’s national team wins by six over Sao Tome in the World Cup qualifiers
The Tunisian national football team achieved a broad victory over its guest, Sao Tome and Principe, with a clean score, on Friday, at the “Hammadi Al-Aqrabi” Stadium in Brades, in the ninth round of the African qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
The Carthage Eagles team, which already qualified for the World Cup, finished the first half leading with a clean hat-trick scored by Firas Shawat and Elias Saad (two goals) in the 36th, 39th and 43rd minutes, respectively.
In the second half, Ismail Gharbi strengthened Tunisia’s superiority with a fourth goal in the 47th minute, before substitute Mohamed Ali Ben Ramadan added the fifth and sixth goals in the 68th and 90th minutes from a penalty kick.
With this victory, Tunisia raised its score to 25 points from 8 wins and a draw, at the top of Group H, while the Sao Tome and Principe team did not achieve any points in the qualifiers, at the bottom of the standings.
Coach Sami Trabelsi’s squad qualified for the World Cup for the seventh time in its history since the last eighth round after defeating Equatorial Guinea with a goal.
In the second group, the Senegal national team strengthened its lead in the standings by defeating its host, the South Sudan national team, by five clean goals, raising its score to 21 points, two points ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the runner-up, which beat Togo by a goal.
The decision on the direct qualification ticket was postponed until the tenth and final round, where Senegal will host Mauritania, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo will host its Sudanese counterpart next Tuesday.
The goalless draw decided the confrontation between Sudan and Mauritania, leaving the two Arab teams officially bid farewell to the World Cup qualification race.
In the third group, the Benin national team came close to qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in its history, by defeating its Rwandan counterpart with a clean goal, scored by Ayagon Tosin in the 80th minute.
Benin leads the group standings with 17 points from 9 matches, two points ahead of South Africa, and three points ahead of Nigeria.
South Africa tied away against Zimbabwe today, while Nigeria defeated Lesotho by two goals to one in the same round.
In the ninth round, the Côte d’Ivoire national team maintained its lead in the standings after its great victory over its host, the Seychelles national team, with a clean score of seven, and its decision to qualify for the final round was postponed after Gabon’s 4-3 victory over Gambia.
Côte d’Ivoire has 23 points in first place, one point ahead of Gabon, the runner-up, with 22 points.
The winners of the nine groups in the African qualifiers qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup, while the top 4 teams in second place will go into the playoffs, to have an additional opportunity to increase their share.
The twenty-third edition of the World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico between June 11 and July 19, 2026, with the participation of 48 teams for the first time.
