AFCON
TUNISIA MAINTAIN UNBEATEN RUN IN AFCON QUALIFIERS
Tunisia finished their qualification campaign for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations unbeaten after their 2-1 victory over Equatorial Guinea at home on Sunday.
The Carthage Eagles have won five matches and drawn one of their six qualifying games.
Heading into the final round of matches, both teams had already qualified and were under no pressure.
Tunisia got into the lead early, Saifeddine Jaziri breaking the deadlock with a good finish off Ferjani Sassi’s pass. The home side extended their lead seven minutes into the second half when Equatorial Guinea defender Carlos Akapo turned the ball into his own net.
The Djurtus scored a consolation with two minutes of normal time left when Firas Chaouat scored into his own net.
Meanwhile in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania who lost to the Equatoguineans on Thursday to crash their Cameroon dreams kept their first clean sheet of the qualifiers after beating Libya by a solitary goal to ensure they finished third while the North Africans remained bottom.
Simon Msuva scored the lone goal for the Taifa Stars at the stroke of half time.
In the second half Libya came back stronger and had several scoring chances.
Ibrahem Bodabous had a good chance with a header unmarked at the backpost just after the restart when Rabiaa Abubaker floated a decent cross from the right, but he couldn’t put the effort on target. In the 52nd minute Mohamed Soulah drifted in from the right but his shot was well saved by Manula.
On the other end, Mbwana Samatta had a good chance for the Tanzanians when a cross from Shomari Kapombe found him inside the box, but his attempt at a volley ended in a wide shot.
The Libyans continued to press for an equalizer and had other chances. Substitute Mouad Eisay had a go at goal with a shot from distance but Manula smothered it behind for a corner.
Late on in the game, Erasto Nyoni did well to clear the ball off the line after Salah Aldeen Fakroun’s cross from the left was almost turned into an own goal by Bakari Mwamnyeto.
Elsewhere in Namibia, Guinea suffered their first defeat of the qualifiers after losing 2-1 to the hosts.
The Syli Nationale had already qualified from group A alongside Mali, but were looking to finish top of the group for pride. However, Namibia ensured they finished the group round with victory at home coming from behind to firm up their third spot with a brace from on form Mamelodi Sundowns man Peter Shalulile.
The visitors broke the deadlock in the 17th minute through Mamadou Kane, but Namibia drew back level with Shalulile scoring at the stroke of halftime.
The home side had a chance to make it 2-1 just after the restart, but Manfred Starke’s attempt with a bicycle kick off a cross from the left was awry.
Guinea also had a chance in the 62nd minute when Mohamed Bangoura floated in a cross from the left, but Moustapha Kouyate placed his header over the bar.
Namibia got the winner in the 77th minute when Shalulile finished well inside the box after picking the ball off a corner just inside the six yard box.
-CAF
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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