Nine African Nations Reach World Cup Knockouts in Record-Shattering Run

Africa has never seen anything like it. Nine of the ten teams the continent sent to the 2026 World Cup have punched through to the knockout stage, a haul that dwarfs every previous edition and reshapes the balance of a tournament long dominated by Europe and South America.

Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Congo and Algeria all survived the group phase. The nine advancing squads mean more than 28 percent of the teams still standing come from Africa — an extraordinary figure at a competition where, as recently as 2014, only two African nations reached the last 16.

The expanded 48-team format handed the continent more places, but qualification alone does not explain the surge. Morocco went through Group C unbeaten, holding Brazil to a draw before beating Scotland and Haiti. Senegal thrashed Iraq 5-0 in their final group game to sneak in as one of the best third-placed sides. Egypt edged into the knockouts on goal difference, behind Belgium, for a breakthrough that had eluded the Pharaohs for years.

For a generation of African players raised on the near-misses of past World Cups — the quarter-final heartbreaks, the group-stage exits by the finest margins — this feels like a threshold finally crossed. Cape Verde, one of the smallest nations ever to reach the finals, standing among the last 32 is a story in itself.

The hard part starts now. The knockout draw will scatter these teams across the bracket, and several face the tournament's traditional heavyweights next. But the message from the group stage is already written into the record books: African football did not simply show up to the first World Cup on North American soil. It arrived in numbers no one has matched.