Rwanda national football team lost to Benin 1-0 in a qualifying game for the 2026 World Cup, which took place at Amahoro Stadium on Friday evening.

Amavubi had an upper hand throughout the game, holding plenty of ball possession and creating more scoring chances than The Cheetahs, but choked when it came to the crunch.

It was a dull match from both sides for most of the game, yet Benin showed that they wanted it the most, converting their sole big scoring chance when Tosin Aiyegun scored the winner in the 80th minute.

With this victory, Gernot Rohr's side have boosted their hopes of securing a berth at the World Cup for the very first time, as they top Group C with 17 points following South Africa's 0-0 draw with Zimbabwe, with one game remaining to decide everything.

South Africa are second with 15 points, while Nigeria sit in third spot with 14 points after defeating Lesotho 2-1.

Rwanda are fourth with 11 points, whilst Lesotho and Zimbabwe are fifth and sixth with nine and five points, respectively.

Adel Amrouche's men will travel to South Africa to play their final qualifying game against Bafana Bafana on Tuesday, 14 October. Meanwhile, Nigeria will host Benin.

“We gave them a gift. There was a misunderstanding between some players. It happens, but it didn’t happen at a good time or day," said Rwanda head coach Adel Amrouche in a post-match press conference.

"It’s not easy to find words to explain something…I don’t have any explanations. We fought, had possession, and more chances than them.….. but this is what we have in our league and in our players. I can’t blame any person, I can blame the luck, it was not with us today."

Amrouche further said: “You must be realistic, don’t say the dream. If you want to go somewhere to play big tournaments, you must have that structure, that organisation and foundation. It doesn’t happen in a few days, or you change the coach, president (of Rwanda FA), and you are going to do magic things. No."

"You must work. You must have many players and a good league. You must have the youth – Under 20s and 23s – and the league for the youth. We are far, don’t talk about the World Cup while you don’t have a foundation, but we are working on the players that we have, and the good thing is that there are other players from outside who are going to join the team, and I’m sure that with that we can build a team."

Benin head coach Gernot Rohr said: "It was a difficult game for us. We have perhaps – in the end of the match – a little bit of luck to keep the 0-1 score. Rwanda have a very good team, and we knew that it would be very difficult to win here.”

“Now it's done, and we look forward. Unfortunately, we'll miss two players in Nigeria, the last game, because of yellow cards, and we already missed three players who were injured before this match, but the solidarity of the team could make this victory.”

Watch Adel Amrouche's post-game press conference here: