African Nations Cup 2013 Qualifying

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Only a month after the end of the 2012 tournament, qualifying starts for the enxt nations Cup which will be held next year as the competition switches to being played every odd year rather than every even one. The teams who did not qualify for the 2012 event start of qualifying with the first leg of these home and away matches:

Seychelles v Congo DR
Gambia v Algeria
Ethiopia v Benin
Guinea-Bissau v Cameroon
Madagascar v Cape Verde Islands
Malawi v Chad
Tanzania v Mozambique
Liberia v Namibia
Kenya v Togo
Rwanda v Nigeria
Sao Tome e Principe v Sierra Leone
Congo v Uganda
Burundi v Zimbabwe

An article on qualifying, focusing on Nigeria's visit to Rwanda. Egypt's series against the Central African Republic has been postponed until next June because of the disturbances in Port Said last month.

[Nkono]

Ghana, as one of the 2012 Nations Cup participants will await a winner of one of these series in another home and away matchup to determine who qualifies for 2013 in South Africa. but Ghana will be doing that with a new coach as they unsurprisingly fired th Serb Goran Stevanovic. Ghana's failure to get beyond the semifinals in a weakened Nations Cup and his alienation of some leading players (notably Boateng and Gyan) hav led to his dismissal. Ghanaian Kwesi Appiah, one of Stevanovic's assistants will take charge for now.

[Sammy Maudlin]

Bob Bradley's Egypt are unbeaten in World Cup qualifying but today they suffered a shock 3-2 loss at home to Central African Republic in African Nations Cup qualifying.

This stage in the abbreviated qualifying tourney is home and away matches so Egypt will now have to go to the Central African Republic and win by 2 goals in order to advance to the final stage of qualifying for 2013. Bradley's first real adversity as Egyptian coach.

[Nkono]

Egypt could only draw with the Central African Republic in the return leg so amazingly Egypt are now eliminated from the 2013 African nations Cup! A very surprising result but now they have to concentrate on re-establishing their league after the Port Said tragedy and getting the national team through World Cup qualifying.

Here then are the fixtures list for the final round of qualifying in this abbreviated qualifying competition, the home and away matches will be played between September 7-9 (first leg) and October 12-14 (second leg) of this year with the 15 winners joining host South Africa in next year's finals:

•07-09/09/12: Mali v Botswana
•12-14/10/12: Botswana v Mali

•07-09/09/12: Zimbabwe v Angola
•12-14/10/12: Angola v Zimbabwe

•07-09/09/12: Ghana v Malawi
•12-14/10/12: Malawi v Ghana

•07-09/09/12: Liberia v Nigeria
•12-14/10/12: Nigeria v Liberia

•07-09/09/12: Zambia v Uganda
•12-14/10/12: Uganda v Zambia

•07-09/09/12: Cape Verde v Cameroon
•12-14/10/12: Cameroon v Cape Verde

•07-09/09/12: Mozambique v Morocco
•12-14/10/12: Morocco v Mozambique

•07-09/09/12: Sierra Leone v Tunisia
•12-14/10/12: Tunisia v Sierra Leone

•07-09/09/12: Guinea v Niger
•12-14/10/12: Niger v Guinea

•07-09/09/12: Sudan v Ethiopia
•12-14/10/12: Ethiopia v Sudan

•07-09/09/12: Libya v Algeria
•12-14/10/12: Algeria v Libya

•07-09/09/12: Ivory Coast v Senegal
•12-14/10/12: Senegal v Ivory Coast

•07-09/09/12: DR Congo v Equatorial Guinea
•12-14/10/12: Equatorial Guinea v DR Congo

•07-09/09/12: Gabon v Togo
•12-14/10/12: Togo v Gabon

•07-09/09/12: Burkina Faso v Central African Republic
•12-14/10/12: Central African Republic v Burkina Faso

Cote d'Ivoire-Senegal is the matchup which really attracts your eye, two star packed teams meeting with only 1 advancing to next year's finals. I think Cameroon got a good draw being paired with Cape Verde while SuperEagle is likely happy about Nigeria getting paired with Liberia.
Ghana fans also should be happy facing Malawi.

There are some other intriguing matches though such as Gabon-Togo, Libya-Algeria, Zimbabwe-Angola and current holders Zambia playing Uganda.

[Sammy Maudlin]

No Samuel Eto'o for Cameroon in their series vs Cape Verde Islands, Eto'o refuses to return to "amateurish" Cameroon setup.

[rosarino]

African Nations Cup qualifying

final round, first leg fixtures (times GMT):

On Saturday

In Abidjan: Ivory Coast v Senegal (1700)

In Accra: Ghana v Malawi (1500)

In Bamako: Mali v Botswana (1700)

In Bangui: Central African Republic v Burkina Faso (1400)

In Freetown: Sierra Leone v Tunisia (1630)

In Khartoum: Sudan v Ethiopia (1700)

In Libreville: Gabon v Togo (1430)

In Monrovia: Liberia v Nigeria (1800)

In Ndola: Zambia v Uganda (1300)

In Praia: Cape Verde Islands v Cameroon (1700)

On Sunday

In Casablanca, Morocco: Libya v Algeria (1700)

In Conakry: Guinea v Niger (1700)

In Harare: Zimbabwe v Angola (1300)

In Kinshasa: DR Congo v Equatorial Guinea (1430)

In Maputo: Mozambique v Morocco (1300)

The return legs will be played on the weekend of Oct. 12-14

and the 15 winners compete in the finals in South Africa next

January along with the host nation.

[enganche]

A review of Saturday's qualifiers. Sounds like an exciting game in Abidjan with Ivory Coast twice coming from behind to beat Senegal 4-2. Plenty of goals in Sudan too as the home team defeated Ethiopia 5-3.

Nigeria and Tunisia obtained away draws but Cameroon has some work still to do after losing 2-0 away to Cape Verde!

[Yogi]

A review of Sunday's qualifiers, the notably results being DR Congo's 4-0 win over Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique's 2-0 home win against Morocco and Algeria's 1-0 win away to Libya (in what was really a neutral setting because of Libya's political situation.)

[Martin]

Cameroon's 2-0 loss at Cape Verde resulted in the firing of their French coach Denis Lavagne. Cameroonian Jean Paul Akono, Cameroon's coach when they won the 2000 Olympic title, takes over and has stated his first job is to get Samuel Eto'o and Benoit Assou Ekotto back onto the team. Stay tuned to see if he is successful.

[Sammy Maudlin]

Well Akono got Eto'o back, he says he will now play. Next the new coach will try and convince both Assou Ekotto and Rennes' midfielder Jean Makoun to return to the national team. I bet he succeeds.

[raconteur]

Eto'o and Makoun are back, Assou Ekotto is not, Cameroon's squad:

Goalkeepers: Idriss Carlos Kameni (Malaga), Joslain Mayebi (Wrexham), Guy Roland Assembe Ndy (Nancy)

Defenders: Benoit Angbwa (Rostov), Henri Bedimo (Montpellier), Gaetang Bong (Valenciennes), Aurelien Chedjou (Lille), Jean-Armel Kana Biyik (Stade Rennes), Nicolas Nkoulou (Olympique Marseille), Dany Nounkeu (Galatasaray), Allan Nyom (Granada), Pierre Wome (Canon Yaounde)

Midfielders: Jean Makoun (Stade Rennes), Joel Matip (Schalke 04), Modeste Mbami (Al Ittihad Jeddah), Patrick Mekoulou (Admira Wacker), Alain Olle Olle (Varbergs), Willie Overtoom (Heracles Almelo), Alexandre Song (Barcelona, Spain)

Forwards: Vincent Aboubakar (Valenciennes), Joel Babanda (Union Douala), Achille Emana (Fenerbahce), Fabrice Essono Olinga (Malaga), Samuel Eto'o (Anzhi Makhachkala), Mohamadou Idrissou (Kaiserslautern), Pierre Webo (Buyuksehir).

[Nkono]

I am very happy about Jean Paul Akono becoming national coach, Cameroon has gone from one foreign coach to the next in recent years without much success, here is a local coach who has taken the nation to one of, if not its best ever, successes. And getting Eto'o and Makoun back is great. I am not surprised by Assou Ekotto, however, he was reluctant to even play for Cameroon as the French born player always held out hope he could one day play for France. those chances are gone now but his desire to play for the Indomitable Lions was always small to begin with. In Yaounde, Cameroon can make up the 2 goal deficit but it will require concentration and spirit from the opening whistle. If ot the unthinkable of misisng out on a 2nd straight Nations Cup will become reality.

[raconteur]

Cape Verde eliminate Cameroon, Cameroon's 2-1 home win was not enough to overturn the 2-0 first leg deficit. Ethiopia also came from behind to eliminate Sudan, their first qualification in 30 years. Ivory Coast were 2-0 up in Senegal, 6-2 overall when the game was halted because of Senegalese fans invading the field. Elsewhere the usual suspects have advanced-Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Morocco but it took penalties for defending champion Zambia to advance past Uganda.

[Yogi]

A reviewof the entire weekend's play, focusing on Sunday's games. Officially the halted Senegal-Ivory Coast game has not yet been determined but Ivory Coast, up 6-2 overall will advance to the finals. Some late drama as Alain Traore's stoppage time goal gave Burkina Faso a aggregate win over Central African Repubic who prior to the late goal were on the verge of an away goals advancement.

So with the official ruling on Ivory Coast to come up, the other 15 qualifiers are:

South Africa, Zambia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso, Angola, Cape Verde, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Looks to be good tournament with only Cameroon and Egypt of the continent's traditional powers missing.