{"id":15293,"date":"2025-11-14T14:08:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/mbemba-snatches-late-winner-as-congolese-march-on-in-world-cup-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:35","slug":"mbemba-snatches-late-winner-as-congolese-march-on-in-world-cup-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mbemba-snatches-late-winner-as-congolese-march-on-in-world-cup-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbemba snatches late winner as Congolese march on in World Cup playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Democratic Republic of Congo captain Chancel Mbemba snuck in at the back post to score a dramatic last-gasp winner for his team as they edged Cameroon 1-0 in the World Cup Africa playoffs on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mbemba stole in unmarked to force home a corner from Brian Cipenga to secure a dramatic victory for his country and keep them on course for possible qualification to next year&#8217;s finals.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Congolese will meet Nigeria in the playoff final in Rabat on Sunday after they beat Gabon 4-1 after extra time earlier on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Sunday&#8217;s winner then advances to the inter-confederation playoffs in March where six teams will battle for two places at the 2026 finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The African playoffs, hosted in the Moroccan capital, are for the four best runners-up across the nine African qualifying groups that concluded last month with the winners all advancing to next year&#8217;s finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Cameroon&#8217;s eight previous World Cup finals appearances are a record for an African nation but that gave them little superiority over a determined Congolese side in a match played in persistent rain.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The early half chances fell for Congolese attackers Noah Sadiki and Theo Bongonda, although Cameroon also had opportunities in the first half when Karl Etta Eyong failed to get a touch to Bryan Mbeumo&#8217;s probing free kick.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana, who had been an injury doubt before the match, made a fine stop to deny Bongonda on the hour mark, while five minutes later, at the other end, Mbeumo burst through onto a probing pass but steered his effort wide from close range.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Two half chances fell for Etta Eyong in the closing minutes, even as the Congolese looked to be finishing stronger, before Mbemba popped up with the winner.<\/div>\n<div>Earlier, Nigeria had to go to extra time before beating Gabon, with Victor Osimhen scoring twice.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15294,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-15293","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Congolese will meet Nigeria in the playoff final in Rabat on Sunday.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The Congolese will meet Nigeria in the playoff final in Rabat on Sunday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19595,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15293\/revisions\/19595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}