Morocco, Senegal, others headline Africa’s ambitions for World Cup success

The continent of Africa reached a new height in FIFA World Cup history after the Atlas Lions of Morocco became the first African country to play in the semi-finals of the tournament at the 2022 edition in Qatar.

Ahead of the 2026 World Cup starting on June 11 in North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico), the eyes of the football community may be on Africa to match or surpass Morocco’s feat, especially with the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams.

Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, South Africa and DR Congo are the 10 countries representing Africa in North America.

Historically, African nations have mostly struggled to compete with the best from other continents and have been unable to reach the knockout stage, but some are still expected to go beyond the first round in North America.

Morocco

There is widespread consensus among football commentators that Morocco is the African country most likely to go furthest at the World Cup, given its historic fourth-place finish at the tournament four years ago.

Morocco has the best sports facilities in Africa, which have enabled the North African country to scale up football development rapidly in recent years and boast some of the best squads on the continent, including captain Achraf Hakimi and Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz.

As of March, Morocco are ranked as Africa’s best team at eight in the FIFA Rankings as of April. This attests to the Atlas Lions’ standing amongst the best teams in the world.

Morocco is in the same group as Brazil, Haiti and Scotland.

Senegal

Senegal is one of the four African countries to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup, a feat the West African coach achieved at the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.

The Lions of Teranga are the second-best-ranked African team by FIFA. Senegal has established itself as one of the national teams to record with on the international football scene, courtesy of their fluid brand of football.

Senegal is one of the few African teams that football fans would undoubtedly tip to reach the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup. In the group stage of the tournament, Senegal will play France, Norway and Iraq.

Ghana

Despite a recent decline after the group stage knockout at the 2023 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire and missing out on the 2025 tournament, Ghana are still capable of going beyond the group stage at the World Cup.

Ghana are also part of the small group of African countries to have reached the last eight of the World Cup after the famous run at the 2010 edition, hosted in South Africa.

With players such as Antoine Semenyo and Mohammed Kudus anticipated to be in Ghana’s squad for the tournament, the Black Stars are likely to get past the first round. The Black Stars are in a tough group with England, Panama and Croatia.

Egypt

Despite failing to go beyond the group stage in their three previous participation, Egypt can break the curse at the upcoming tournament.

With the fourth-place finish at the 2025 AFCON in Morocco, the Mohamed Salah-led team showed they are still one of the strongest teams in Africa.

The Pharaohs are drawn in Group G of the World Cup with Belgium, Iran and New Zealand, a group that should be relatively easy for them to accumulate the points needed to reach the knockout phase.

Algeria

The two-time African champions have previously played in four World Cups and only managed to emerge from the group stage once at the 2014 tournament in Brazil, but are still among the favourites among African teams to reach the knockout phase.

Except for defending champions Argentina, Algeria is expected to go toe-to-toe with Austria and Jordan to secure one of the two round-of-32 spots from the group.