BY KUNLE SOLAJA

It promises a frenzy weekend in Africa as five matches are lined up as the beginning of the end of the Qatar 2022 begins.

This Friday, five matches are on the card. Three of them are potential thrillers. These are the Egypt versus Senegal; Ghana versus Nigeria and Cameroon versus Algeria.

To some extent, the Mali versus Tunisia is also a grudge-laden encounter while DR Congo will wish to break a 48-year wait since they last played at the World Cup. This can only be realised if they obtain good scorecard in their encounter with Morocco.

Egypt versus Senegal

Global attention will be on this match in Cairo as it is the second match this year of what has been destined to be a trilogy.

First both highly rated sides contested the final match of the Africa Cup of Nations and now have to meet twice again to decide which team goes to the World Cup.

Supporters of Premiership side, Liverpool, outside Egypt and Senegal will undoubtedly have divided loyalty as the match-up pitches Liverpool’s twin strikers, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane against one another.

One thing is certain, one of the African sides at the last World Cup in Russia is destined to be eliminated.

When the two teams met in Yaounde in last month’s final match of Africa Cup of Nations, they played goalless and a winner had to be decided by the lottery of penalty shoot-out.

Will Egypt have their revenge in the two encounters of World Cup play-off? Statistics do not favour the Pharaohs. If they qualify, it will be their first ever back-to-back qualification for the World Cup.

Though the most successful team in Africa in terms of the Africa Cup of Nations, they had awful record at the zenith of global football.

They were the first African team to feature in 1934 but had to wait another 56 years to qualify in 1990.  Their third appearance was 28 years after their second participation.

If that is anything to be considered, then it is advantage Senegal. Worse still, in seven matches across three editions, Egypt have never won a match having recorded five losses and two drawn games.

But sometimes, bare statistics have little bearing to actual happening on the field. Save for the loss to Nigeria in the opening Group D game of the last Africa Cup, Egypt have been unbeaten since.

When juxtaposed with their elimination on home soil by South Africa in 2019, Egypt have only lost a match in regulation time in 22 matches.

Senegal were also unbeaten in the group phase of the World Cup qualifiers, winning five of their six games, and are on a 19-match unbeaten run. Their last defeat came in October 2020 when Morocco beat them 3-1 in a friendly match played in Rabat.

Based on the run up, this Friday’s match in Cairo will be a classic encounter.

Ghana versus Nigeria

A classic fixture and perhaps the most recurring fixture in African football as both teams have met across all competitions and friendly encounters on as many as close to 60 times since their debut encounter 71 years ago.

Owing to the recurring match-ups, Nigeria and Ghana are often referred to as eternal rivals.

Coincidentally, it was against Ghana on 28 August 1960 that Nigeria debuted in World Cup qualifying series in Accra.

Even though they have met in qualifying and final series of the Africa Cup as well as qualification for the World Cup in the past, none of the previous encounters had a stake as high as the current one.

The aggregate winner of these play-offs gets the ticket to the World Cup unlike in the past when the stakes were lopsided. For instance, when both met at the qualification series for the 2002 World Cup, Ghana had no realistic chance of qualifying, even if Nigeria had failed.

This classic encounter is also an acid test for the indigenous coaches as both have reached out to their nationals to guide their respective teams.

The last time Eguavoen led the Super Eagles to play against Ghana, it was an unmitigated disaster. In the match played at the now demolished Griffin Park in London, Ghana won 4-1.

The next day after the 6 February 2007 match, Nigeria signed on Germany’s Berti Vogts as coach. Although Eguavoen had led the Super Eagles be beat the Black Stars 1-0 the previous year at the Africa Cup in Egypt, vengeance should be boiling in him to redress the humiliating defeat that marred the end of his first stint as Nigeria’s manager.

Cameroon versus Algeria

After their dream of playing the final match of the 2021 Africa Cup was truncated on home soil, Cameroon, African record  holder in World Cup participation will be seeking a new lease of life under an indigenous coach.

Friday’s match against Algeria in Douala will be the first match under Rigobert Song, their former captain.

Both Cameroon and Algeria are battling to redeem their battered image at the Africa Cup.

Algeria who went into the series with a lengthy unbeaten streak of 34 were shocked out of the competition by lowly ranked Equatorial Guinea and like Ghana, finished with just a point from possible nine.

Before their elimination, they were just one match away from equalling Italy’s global unbeaten run.

For the World Cup play-off, Algeria’s indigenous coach, Djamel Belmadi made just few changes from the squad he took to Cameroon in January.

He may not find the Cameroonians easy nuts to crack, especially in Douala where the seven-time World Cup qualifiers last lost a match in 1998 in the build-up to the 2000 Africa Cup before the fixtures were cancelled as both Nigeria and Ghana were later awarded the hosting rights.

Algeria have beaten Cameroon only once before in a low-key tournament in Gabon in 1995 when they won 4-0 against a home-based Indomitable Lions side.

Cameroon have beaten the Algerians at the 1986, 1998 and 2000 Africa Cup of Nations finals and drew with them at the 1984 and 2004 finals.

They have played them in two World Cup qualifiers only previously, in the qualifiers for the last finals in Russia.

The two teams drew 1-1 in Algiers before Cameroon won 2-0 at home but they both finished behind Nigeria and Zambia in the group.

Mali versus Tunisia

The two teams are not strange to each other. They have met in friendly encounters as well as in the framework of the Africa Cup of Nations.

In the latter, Mali have surprisingly posted some shock results.  Recall the 1994 Africa Cup opening match when Mali beat hosts Tunisia 2-0.

They won again when they met in a controversial match at the Afcon 2021, a duel Mali won, but was twice prematurely ended by the referee.

Of the 10 teams jostling for places at the World Cup, Mali are the only ones seeking to make a debut.

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Tunisia have been to five past finals, including the last finals in Russia and in 1978 became the first African country to win a match at the World Cup when they beat Mexico 3-1 in Rosario, Argentina.

Mali have not lost in their last 10 outings, stretching back to last June when Tunisia beat them 1-0 in a friendly played in Tunis.

The two countries have now met 12 times with six wins for Tunisia, five for Mali and a solitary draw at the 2019 Cup of Nations finals in Egypt, when they were also in the same opening round group.

Their first meeting was 50 years ago in 1972 but this is the first time they clash in World Cup qualification.

DR Congo versus Morocco

Though not a classic in the form of Egypt versus Senegal; Ghana versus Nigeria or Cameroon and Algeria confrontation, the match-up of DR Congo and Morocco is also important.

The Congolese are the only ones among the pack of 10 that did not qualify for the last Africa Cup of Nations. They will be hoping to make a return to the world stage after their disastrous outings 48 years ago in Germany.

No other African team had been beaten 9-0 the way the then Yugoslavia mauled the Congolese who were then known as Zaire.

They are this Friday hosting a Moroccan side that had gone 20 matches without a loss till their 2-1 defeat by Egypt after extra time last January.

Morocco will be attempting to continue their perfect finish in the World Cup qualifiers. They were the only team that won all their six matches of the group stage.