Oliseh hails African teams’ strong World Cup showing

Former Super Eagles captain Sunday Oliseh has praised the performance of African teams at the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup, saying the continent’s representatives have exceeded expectations.

Ten African nations are participating in the tournament across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with several sides producing impressive results in the opening rounds.

Speaking on the performances of the teams, Oliseh said Africa had every reason to be proud of its showing so far.

“Some of the nations have played and from the 10 nations that played from Africa, six of them have gotten positive results,” Oliseh said.

“Six out of 10 isn’t bad and for that reason I think we’ve done well.”

The former Nigeria coach singled out Cape Verde for special praise, describing the island nation as one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.

“I like Cape Verde. The way they played, the organisation.

“What I saw is that they intentionally didn’t come to the AFCON.

“This is a country with 600,000 people as a population so they have a goalkeeper who is now the club hero.

“If you look at it Cape Verde has given the best because they played one of the best, most organised teams, Spain and they were able to stand.

“They played aggressive, they used tactics and they committed very few fouls. And the manager as well.”

Cape Verde have emerged as one of Africa’s standout teams after holding Spain to a goalless draw in their World Cup debut before earning another impressive result in a 2-2 draw against Uruguay.

Morocco have also impressed, drawing 1-1 with Brazil before securing a 1-0 victory over Scotland.

Ivory Coast have recorded mixed results, defeating Ecuador before suffering a defeat against Germany, while Egypt sit top of their group after drawing with Belgium and beating New Zealand.

The performances have strengthened hopes of a strong African presence in the knockout stages as the tournament progresses.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖