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Former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe scored an extra-time goal as DR Congo beat Jamaica 1-0 in the qualifying playoffs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published on 31 March 2026<\/span>31 March 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n DR Congo is the latest team to book their place at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after a 1-0 win against Jamaica after extra time in the Intercontinental Playoff Final.<\/p>\n Former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe scored the only goal in the first half of extra time to settle the tie after a tense affair in normal time.<\/p>\n 4 item list<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The former England Under-21 international headed the ball over the line from a corner in the 100th minute, but had to wait more than a minute for a possible handball to be checked before the goal was confirmed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made it too difficult for ourselves, maybe the opportunity passed us by,\u201d said Tuanzebe, who now plays his club football for Burnley in the English Premier League.<\/p>\n \u201cScoring the winning goal for your country\u2026that’s every player’s dream<\/p>\n “I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to do for the country, I’m very proud of the country and now it’s time to celebrate.”<\/p>\n It was as much as the Congolese deserved, dominating proceedings in a fast-paced match even without many clear-cut chances at the Estadio Guadalajara, which will be one of three Mexican venues for the World Cup.<\/p>\n The victory means the 2026 edition of football’s showpiece event will feature 10 teams from Africa.<\/p>\n DR Congo defeated Nigeria in a playoff at the end of qualifying to reach the intercontinental stage of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).<\/p>\n Jamaica defeated New Caledonia on Thursday on their intercontinental route to reach this stage, while DR Congo’s ranking \u2013 as one of the African sides \u2013 meant they were placed straight into the final.<\/p>\n They have only reached the final once before \u2013 as Zaire in 1974, similarly Jamaica have only reached the final in France in 1998.<\/p>\n DR Congo will now join Portugal, Colombia and Uzbekistan in a World Cup group that will play its first matches.<\/p>\n The final World Cup spot available will be decided in the second intercontinental final between Iraq and Bolivia, to be played later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe scored an extra-time goal as DR Congo beat Jamaica 1-0 in the qualifying playoffs. Published on 31 March 202631 March 2026 DR Congo is the latest team to book their place at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after a 1-0 win against Jamaica after extra time in the Intercontinental<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3579,1369,734,3422,5385,13771,13770,615,166],"class_list":{"0":"post-32637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-congo","9":"tag-cup","10":"tag-defeated","11":"tag-enter","12":"tag-final","13":"tag-intercontinental","14":"tag-jamaica","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32639,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32637\/revisions\/32639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n