BEVERLY HILLS, March 31, (THEWILL) – In the race for places in the TOTAL African Cup of Nations (AFCON) holding in Cameroon next year, four other countries breasted the tape for their slot at the 33rd edition of the biennial football competition in the final round of matches on Tuesday.
Teams from Mauritania, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde joined others who had already confirmed their participation earlier.
However, there was a controversial final day for Group L, which is the group from which Nigeria’s Super Eagles qualified with an unbeaten streak of four wins and two draws. The crux of the dispute pertained to the decision about which team between the pair of the Squirrels of the Republic of Benin and the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone would join Nigeria on the path to Cameroon after the match between both failed to hold as billed.
The Squirrels, who needed to avoid defeat in Freetown to join group toppers, Nigeria, refused to play Sierra Leone after challenging positive COVID-19 tests for five of their players, in much the same way as Nigeria suspected the positive coronavirus result for Nigeria and Everton winger, Alex Iwobi, from the Benin Republic, which later proved to be false.
Rows over COVID-19 tests have plagued African football since football matches resumed after the pandemic lockdowns.
Often, host national teams and clubs have been accused of producing false positive results to deprive opponents of significant players with the capacity to turn the result in favour of the visiting team.
When discussions between representatives of Sierra Leone, Benin and officials of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown failed to resolve the standoff, the squads remained in their hotels and did not file out for the match.
A resolution of the impasse will be CAF’s decision, based on the guidance from its legislation because the chance exists for either of both sides to still qualify as Benin holds a three-point lead over Sierra Leone in Group L and require a point to finish runners-up to Nigeria, while Sierra Leone can change that occurrence with an outright win to qualify instead.
Elsewhere, Mauritania made certain of only their second AFCON tournament by qualifying as runners-up in Group E, which Morocco topped. The West African country held a one goal lead to the end to deal a defeat to the Central African Republic in Bangui to the pleasure of their football fans.
In the other fixture of the group, Sevilla striker Munir El-Haddadi of Morocco netted his first international goal for his country to give them a 1-0 win over Burundi.
Fortunately for Ethiopia, although they lost 3-1 to Ivory Coast in Abidjan in the match where a fainting referee, Ghanaian Charles Bulu, caused the game to end ten minutes before time, they still qualify for their first AFCON since 2013 after Madagascar were held to a goalless match at home by Niger in Group K.
In Group I, it was Guinea-Bissau that celebrated qualification instead of Congo as the Guinea-Bissauns trounced Congo 3-0 to leapfrog them in booking their pass to Cameroon 2022. Meanwhile, group leaders Senegal needed a stoppage-time goal from Crystal Palace’s Cheikhou Kouyate to earn a one-all draw with Eswatini, the bottom team of the group.
The Group F final game between Cape Verde and Mozambique, which was held at the Estadio Nacional do Zimpeto in Maputo Mozambique, ended in favour of the visitors. Cape Verde, therefore, confirmed their AFCON return with a second-placed finish behind hosts Cameroon.
As already reported by THEWILL, Nigeria claimed their fourth win in six with a home 3-0 victory over the whipping team of Group L, Lesotho. The opening goal by Napoli forward, Victor Osimhen, took the striker’s tally in the group stages to five goals, making him end the qualifying campaign as the joint top-scorer alongside Patson Daka of the Chipolopolo of Zambia.
Tuesday AFCON Qualifiers match results:
Central African Republic 0-1 Mauritania
Ivory Coast 3-1 Ethiopia
Madagascar 0-0 Niger
Guinea-Bissau 3-0 Congo
Nigeria 3-0 Lesotho
Senegal 1-1 Eswatini
Cameroon 0-0 Rwanda
Mozambique 0-1 Cape Verde
Morocco 1-0 Burundi
Sierra Leone – Benin (Not played)
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
