Ghana's journey to the 2026 FIFA World Cup has now been made clear as the Black Stars of Ghana have been handed a tricky group.

The draw for Africa was held this evening at the Sofitel Hotel in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

Coach Chris Hughton's side has been paired with a lot of familiar foes in Group I alongside the likes of Mali, Comoros who recently handed Ghana a 3-1 defeat at the 2021 AFCON, Chad, Madagascar, and Central African Republic who Ghana are in the same group in the AFCON 2023 qualifiers.

Nigeria is in Group C same as familiar opponents South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho.

Morocco who became the first African side to reach the last four of the FIFA World Cup at the last edition must go past the likes of  Zambia, Tanzania, Congo, Niger, and Eritrea in Group E to reach the next edition.

African champions Senegal is in group B alongside DR Congo, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, and South Sudan.

While neighbouring Cote D'Ivoire is in Group F with Gabon, Kenya, the Gambia, Burundi, and Seychelles.

The likes of Cameroon, Algeria and Tunisia are all in manageable groups and are the overwhelming favourites to progress from the various groups.

The teams have been sorted into nine groups of six teams each, and they will compete in home-and-away round-robin matches.

The winners of each group will secure direct qualification for the World Cup.

However, the best four second-placed teams across all nine groups will enter a continental play-off to determine one winner.

This winner will proceed to a second and final play-off against teams from different confederations.

The top two teams from this play-off will qualify for the World Cup, completing the 48-team lineup that will be hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada.

The qualifiers are set to commence in November of this year, with matchdays scheduled between November 13 and 21 for the first and second rounds, and June 2024 for the third and fourth rounds.

The final matchday will be held in the week of October 6-14, 2025.

The Continental play-off will take place between November 10 and 18, 2025, at a venue to be announced.

In the previous edition of the World Cup in Qatar, Africa was represented by Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, and Tunisia.

Morocco made history by becoming the first African country to reach the semi-finals, finishing fourth in the tournament.