AFCON
Angola shock Ghana in Cup of Nations qualifying
Angola produced the first shock of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers as they snatched a last-minute goal to win away against Ghana in one of seven matches played around the continent on Thursday.
Former African champions Algeria and Tunisia both won at home, while there was also success for Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo and Guinea Bissau as teams began the group phase competition to decide the line-up for the finals in Morocco in December next year.
Angolan substitute Milson took advantage of a defensive blunder to score three minutes into stoppage time in the Group F clash in Kumasi.
Angola had held out against a strong Ghana side, with Mohammed Kudus threatening to find the net as he led home hopes but ultimately proved unable.
Burundi’s 3-2 win in Malawi in Group L marked a rare away success for the small east African country, with Mokono Eldinho snatching their 87th minute winner.
Riyad Mahrez returned to the Algeria line-up against Equatorial Guinea in Oran after being dropped for their June World Cup qualifiers and squandered a first half penalty. But his rasping shot some 20 minutes from time allowed Houssem-Eddine Aouar to snap up the rebound, bending down low to power home a header for the opening goal of the Group E encounter. Amine Gouiri added a second near the end.
Tunisia scrambled a goal eight minutes into stoppage time to overcome Madagascar in their Group A clash as veteran coach Faouzi Benzerti, 74, returned to the helm of the team 30 years after his first appointment.
American-based midfielder Bura got Guinea Bissau’s winner over Eswatini in Group I while there was also a 1-0 home win for Congo over South Sudan in Group K, where the only goal came early from Chandrel Massanga.
The Central African Republic overcame the lack of home advantage to beat Lesotho 3-1 in El Jadida, Morocco. They are among the many African countries who may not host qualifiers because their stadia have been declared unsuitable for use in international matches.
Louis Mafouta, who got a hat-trick in World Cup qualifying three months ago, scored two of the Central African Republic’s goals.
The top two teams in each of the 12 groups qualify for the next finals. There will be two sets of qualifiers per team in this international window followed by two more in October and the last two in November, after which the field for the finals will be decided.
-Reuters
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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