The national coach of Benin, Gernot Rorh, has spoken out about the Cheetahs’ chances of qualifying for the final phase of the 2026 World Cup. The Franco-German technician acknowledged that his team will have a lot to do to make their mark.
Like the African countries vying for the final phase of the 2026 World Cup, Benin has known its fate since this Thursday. The CAF has indeed unveiled the draw for the qualifiers of the tournament on the continent. And the Cheetahs have inherited Group C, alongside Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa.
A draw that is anything but good for Team Benin, which is not very well off in this group where the Super Eagles and the Bafana Bafana are the big favorites. This is in any case what national coach Gernot Rorh thinks, who will play his first qualifying phase of a World Cup with the Beninese team. In a video on social networks and relayed by “24aubenin”, the Franco-German technician believes that his team has fallen into a very high-level pool.
“Benin has fallen into an extremely high-level group, with obviously Nigeria as the favorite. A team that we know quite well. But also the others, that is to say South Africa already qualified for the next CAN very early with a new state of mind. Obviously also Zimbabwe which has a very physical very solid team as well. We have Rwanda that we know quite well. And then there is also Lesotho, which is a country that we know well because Benin has played it. So special condition, it will be goals against South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, which are very close geographically. As well as Nigeria and Benin who are also neighbors, so it’s really a group between people who know each other, it’s an extremely technical and physical group at the same time”, commented Gernot Rorh.
However, this does not mean that his team will turn into a point giver, assured the former coach of Nigeria who plans to rely on the experience gained by his team during the last meetings of the CAN 2023 qualifiers to make his mark. “It is up to us, given the little confidence that we have accumulated during our match against Senegal, to continue in this way to go win in Mozambique to have even more confidence and certainty.
There will still be a preparation in October with two friendly matches, obviously a training course and then, in November already the start of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup for which we are already preparing. First, we have this big match to play in Mozambique for the qualification of the CAN and whatever the result, it is the World Cup that is our main objective and it already starts in November so, we don’t have a lot of time”, he added.
“We hope that Benin will be able to play a good role in this Group C, which is a very difficult, very high-level but also very interesting group. Personally, I will have reunions with players in the Super Eagles squad. We will be eager to give our maximum against this great football country”, concluded Rorh.
As a reminder, the first and second days of these qualifiers will be held from November 13 to 21, 2023, the third and fourth days from June 3 to 11, 2024, the fifth and sixth days from March 17 to 25, 2025, the seventh and eighth days from September 1 to 9, 2025, the ninth and tenth days from October 6 to 14, 2025.
