CAPETOWN:
West African giants Ghana and Nigeria each suffered chastening defeats in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Tuesday, whereas Algeria fought again from two targets all the way down to keep away from a shock loss to Burundi.
Tiny Cape Verde, who gained legions of admirers with their gutsy exploits at this yr’s World Cup, additionally went down in a shock loss at house to Rwanda.
However heavyweight contenders Egypt, Morocco and Senegal all gained troublesome away assignments, and there have been house wins for Benin, Comoros, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia on a busy day of 17 matches within the preliminaries for the 2027 finals to be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Ghana, considered one of Africa’s 10 representatives on the World Cup the place they reached the final 32, surrendered a 2-0 lead in a surprising 4-2 house defeat by Gambia in Accra.
Gambia, whose inhabitants is below three million in contrast with Ghana’s virtually 35 million, hit again by a Muhammed Badamosi penalty and targets from Omar Colley and substitute Ebrima Colley, who struck twice.
Ernest Nuamah and Felix Afena-Gyan had put the Black Stars two targets forward after 33 minutes, however their collapse prompted offended house supporters to throw bottles onto the pitch within the closing phases.
The end result elevated the strain on veteran coach Carlos Queiroz after they opened their Group C marketing campaign with a loss away to Ivory Coast final week.
Coventry Metropolis’s Yann Gboho made a dramatic debut for Ivory Coast, coming off the bench to interrupt Somalia’s cussed resistance within the remaining minute earlier than Bazoumana Toure added a second 5 minutes into stoppage time to finish a 2-0 win.
Nigeria, who had been semi-finalists on the final Cup of Nations finals in January, had seven Premier League gamers of their beginning line-up however had been comprehensively outplayed as they went down 3-0 in Guinea Bissau, the place the margin of defeat may need been even larger.
Franculino Dju curled house the first-half opener and captain Mama Balde made it 2-0 within the 66th minute. Alvaro Djalo added a 3rd in stoppage time.
ALGERIA FIGHT BACK
Algeria discovered themselves 2-0 down away in Burundi after 12 minutes however fought again to share the spoils of their Group I tie in Bujumbura.
However it was a removed from convincing efficiency below new coach Brahim Hemdani as Mohamed Belloumi and Adil Boulbina spared Algerian blushes.
Cape Verde have now misplaced their opening two Group Ok clashes after Rwanda got here from one objective all the way down to win 2-1 in Praia with teenager Elie Iradukunda netting the decisive objective. In the identical group, Mali gained 1-0 away in Liberia.
Egypt, who left Mohamed Salah at house over fears of potential harm on the substitute floor at Juba in South Sudan, ran out 5-0 winners with Omar Marmoush grabbing a double and Mostafa Zico, Ibrahim Adel, and teenager Hamza Abdelkarim additionally on track within the Group B conflict.
Brahim Diaz took benefit of sloppy defending to give Morocco the lead on the stroke of halftime away in opposition to Lesotho.
The match was performed in Bloemfontein, South Africa, as a result of Lesotho doesn’t have a stadium as much as worldwide requirements.
Azzedine Ounahi added a second eight minutes from time to finish the 2-0 victory that put Morocco high of Group A.
FIRST VICTORY FOR NEW COACH VIEIRA
Senegal needed to defend tenaciously away in opposition to Ethiopia to present new coach Patrick Vieira his first win in cost after final week’s attract Mozambique. Ibrahim Mbaye scored the sport’s solely objective after 11 minutes, having been teed up by a go from his Aston Villa teammate Nicolas Jackson.
Mozambique went high of Group J on objective distinction after demolishing Sudan 4-1 in Maputo with a double from striker Chamito, who performs his membership soccer in Portugal’s third tier.
Cameroon fought again for a 1-1 draw in opposition to Congo in Brazzaville whereas within the different Group G match, Comoros had a 1-0 house win in Moroni over Namibia, the place Benjaloud Youssef scored early within the second half.
The 2012 African champions Zambia beat Togo 2-0 in Ndola in a match halted for 20 minutes by a first-half energy failure. Rodolfo Aloko scored each targets for Benin of their 2-1 win over Mauritania and debutant Arnold Vula netted Uganda’s objective in a 1-0 house overcome Libya.