It took an effort from New African Soccer-named English Premier League’s African Player of the Month of August, Stoke City’s Mame Biram Diouf, to get the Teranga Lions into the pot for the draw of the Africa flagship tournament in Malabo on December 3.
That 1-0 victory in Cairo though, meant that record seven-time winners Egypt will miss their third consecutive finals in 2015. The Pharaohs have not qualified for the competition since they won a record third consecutive trophy in Angola in 2010.
Senegal is joined from their group by Tunisia, which recorded a 0-0 draw away to Botswana on Friday.
There were emotional scenes in Durban, South Africa as their national team posted a 2-1 win over Sudan in a match that was heavy with emotion, sparked by the death of their captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa. Banana Bafana won to ensure that they finish top of group A, and many dedicated this triumph to the memory of the slain goalkeeper Meyiwa.
Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions also won, leaving it late to get a single goal victory over a stubborn DR Congo side, to qualify for Equatorial Guinea.
Burkina Faso, Gabon and Zambia with an impressive 1-0 win away to Mozambique make up the line-up of teams that qualified to join 100% team Algeria that already had qualified with two games to spare.
The stories of the day were from Congo and Uganda though; where the seemingly dead-and-buried Nigerian Super Eagles got a priceless 2-0 away win against the Claude le Roy tutored Congo, to put themselves back in the reckoning for qualification. And in Uganda, the Cranes overcame a star-studded Ghana team 1-0 to also give themselves a chance to qualify and be the lone representative of the East African region.
Weekend Results
Group A
South Africa 2 - 1 Sudan
Congo 0 -2 Nigeria
Group B
Malawi 2 - 0 Mali
Algeria 3 - 1 Ethiopia
Group C
Lesotho 0 - 1 Burkina Faso
Angola 0 - 0 Gabon
Group D
Sierra Leone 1 - 5 Ivory Coast
Cameroon 1 - 0 DR Congo
Group E
Uganda 1 - 0 Ghana
Togo 1 - 4 Guinea
Group F
Mozambique 0 - 1 Zambia
Cape Verde 3 - 1 Niger
Group G
Botswana 0 - 0 Tunisia
Egypt 0 - 1 Senegal
Wednesday fixtures
Group A
Nigeria v South Africa
Sudan v Congo
Group B
Ethiopia v Malawi
Mali v Algeria
Group C
Burkina Faso v Angola
Gabon v Lesotho
Group D
Ivory Coast v Cameroon
DR Congo v Sierra leone
Group E
Guinea v Uganda (to be played in Casablanca Morocco)
Ghana v Togo
Group F
Zambia v Cape Verde
Niger v Mozambique
Group G
Tunisia v Egypt
Senegal v Botswana
