AFCON
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS QUALIFYING: FIVE TALKING POINTS
After 539 days, 150 matches and 331 goals, the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying has been completed, bar one match.
Sierra Leone and Benin did not play in Freetown on Tuesday because the visitors challenged Covid-19 test results that would have ruled out five of their squad.
The fixture has been rescheduled for the May 31-June 15 international window with Sierra Leone trailing Benin by three points in Group L and needing a victory to overtake them and qualify.
Here, AFP Sport looks at five talking points ahead of the 24-team finals in Cameroon next January with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah set to be star attractions.
Almost perfect
Former champions Tunisia performed best of the 48 teams who started the group phase, collecting 16 points of a possible 18 and winning Group J at a canter.
The Carthage Eagles were particularly impressive against North African neighbours Libya, winning 4-1 at home and 5-2 away.
Seifeddine Jaziri, Saifeddine Khaoui and Wahbi Khazri posed the biggest attacking threats, scoring three goals each for a team coached by local Mondher Kebaier.
Dynamic Daka
Young Zambia forward Patson Daka confirmed his reputation as a rising star of African football by scoring five goals in the qualifying campaign, four of which came in the last two rounds.
He was a key figure in the team that won the 2017 Africa U20 Cup of Nations and soon after moved to Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg, featuring regularly in the UEFA Champions League.
His performances atoned for another disastrous campaign by Zambia, who came third behind Algeria and Zimbabwe in Group H, and will miss the finals for the third consecutive time.
Awesome Algeria
Cup of Nations holders Algeria stretched an unbeaten run in competitive and friendly matches to 24 by hammering Botswana 5-0 in the final round.
It began in November 2019 with a 4-1 Cup of Nations qualifying victory in Togo, and the Desert Foxes have since won 17 matches and drawn seven, scoring 51 goals and conceding 16.
Algeria must stay unbeaten for three more matches to better the record of the Ivory Coast, who went 26 matches without losing between 2011 and 2013.
New faces
The Comoros and the Gambia qualified for the first time, increasing to 44 the number of countries who have qualified for the premier African national team competition.
They will hope to at least match Madagascar, who marked their maiden appearance in 2019 by defeating Nigeria en route to the quarter-finals.
The countries who have never qualified are the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Lesotho, Sao Tome e Principe, the Seychelles, Somalia and South Sudan.
Uganda collapse
While the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa were the highest profile casualties, the failure of Uganda to secure a third straight appearance was the most spectacular.
The Cranes garnered seven points from a possible nine by the halfway stage in Group B and seemed certainties to finish among the top two.
A shock defeat by South Sudan and a draw with Burkina Faso left them needing a point in Malawi to go through, but they lost 1-0 and veteran goalkeeper Denis Onyango wept at the final whistle.
AFP
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.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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