Namibia will square off Equatorial Guinea in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers at the Nuevo Estadio de Malabo Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Both teams are coming off goalless draws against Burkina Faso and South Africa, respectively, in their international friendly matches during the previous international break and they will be looking to start the qualifiers on a positive note.
Namibia head coach Collin Benjamin has said he will use this month’s World Cup qualifiers to prepare for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
“These are important matches from a World Cup perspective, but they’re also important matches before we select our final squad for Afcon in the Ivory Coast,” he was quoted as saying by the Namibian.
He added, “It’s going to be difficult, but nonetheless, as I said, we are trying to get our perfect squad for Afcon, so there’s a lot to play for, but at the same time, we also want to check a few variations.
“We always want to stay compact, we want to be fast in our transitional phases and we want to be variable in our attack and we are using these games to raise our standard, where we can say we are 60 or 70% there for Afcon.”
Benjamin believes their opponents this weekend are not a pushover.
“I think Equatorial Guinea is much stronger than Namibian people believe—they have a strong Spanish influence in their team; if you check their stats at Afcon, they went to the Afcon quarterfinals last year; they have good infrastructure; and they are developing a good thing there,” he said.
Both teams will look to start their World Cup campaigns on a high note. Equatorial Guinea will face Liberia in the second group match, while Sao Tome and Principe will face Namibia.
