A month after celebrating its first win in a competitive game, South Sudan will make its debut in World Cup qualifying on Wednesday as Africa’s lowest-ranked footballing countries begin their quests to reach the sport’s biggest tournament.

For South Sudan, this is a big moment.

The world’s newest nation only gained independence from Sudan in 2011, joined the Confederation of African Football and Fifa in 2012, and achieved its best result to date last month by beating Equatorial Guinea in an African Cup of Nations qualifier.

The team could make more history against Mauritania in their two-leg World Cup qualifying tie. Although itself a minnow, Mauritania is still ranked 55 places higher than South Sudan.

South Sudan coach Lee Sung-jea urged fans to pack the stadium in the capital Juba and make the difference against Mauritania in Wednesday’s first leg.

“We call upon our fans to come in large numbers and cheer the team,” Lee, a South Korean, said in a telephone interview from Juba. “We are ready for our opponents and we know what to expect.”

South Sudan captain Richard Justin Lado told Fifa’s website: “We are ready, totally ready. We know what we have to do and we can spring a surprise.”

A new dawn for South Sudan: http://t.co/ylzCwOTfZ9 spoke to South Sudan captain Richard Justin Lado on the eve of… http://t.co/hJhmmzgOo5 — Football-News (@Bot_Football) October 7, 2015

Even a victory over Mauritania would only get South Sudan through to Africa’s second round of qualifying, where even bigger teams wait.

But the players and the fans have been boosted by the 1-0 win over Equatorial Guinea earlier this year.

The South Sudanese team includes players such as Atak Lual, who made his name scoring the winning goal against Equatorial Guinea, while two of the team’s best players, defender Friday Zico and midfielder Chol Dhuor Ngor, who play for lower league clubs in Australia.

But South Sudan won’t be the biggest outsider among the 26 who start qualifying this week.

Somalia will play Niger on Friday and Djibouti, Africa’s lowest-ranked team and one of the four weakest by ranking in international football, faces Swaziland.

The 13 that progress to the second round next month will join top sides including reigning African champion Ivory Coast, Algeria, and former World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana and Senegal. After that, there’s a third and final round of qualifying to decide Africa’s five teams at the World Cup.