Africa: Afcon Qualifiers Round-Up
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Kickoff (Cape Town)
11 October 2008
Posted to the web 12 October 2008
Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Rwanda, Tunisia, Zambia and Burkina Faso are through to the next round of the 2010 World Cup/ Afcon qualifiers.
Ghana confirmed their place in the final group stage of the qualifiers with a 3-0 win over Lesotho in Sekondi.
The game kicked off late due to crowd trouble at the stadium, and there were reports of serious overcrowding and injuries to fans.
Sulley Muntari, Junior Agogo and Matthew Amoah scored for the hosts and crushed Lesotho's hopes of qualifying for the Nations Cup for the first time.
Ghana sprung from third place in Group 5 to first, leapfrogging over Gabon, who beat Libya 1-0 to claim second place.
Ivory Coast join Ghana in the final phase thanks to a 3-0 win over Madagascar in Abidjan.
A brace from Boubacar Sanogo scored twice, and a third from Chelsea's Salomon Kalou, sent the Ivorians top of Group 7 with 12 points.
Mozambique finished second in the group, after a 1-0 away win over Botswana.
Malawi gave themselves a chance to claim one of the second-place slots at they beat DC Congo 2-1 with a late winner from former Ajax Cape Town man Russel Mwafulirwa.
The win puts Malawi top of Group 12 with 12 points, a position which guarantees them either top spot or second place, depending on Egypt's result at home against Djibouti on Sunday.
Cameroon and Nigeria, both already through to the next round, both recorded resounding victories.
Cameroon got five past Mauritius in Yaounde, while Nigeria thumped Sierra Leone 4-1.
Zambia advanced to the second round after Shakes Mashaba's Swaziland were thumped 6-0 by Togo in Accra on Saturday.
Chipolopolo finished top of Group 11, after Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor netted four times for the Togolese. Moustapha Salifou and Adekanmi Olufade scored the other two.
The Swazis had the chance to progress themselves had they won, but the trouncing means they finish on four points and last in the three-team pool. Togo end their campaign second on six points, one behind group winners Zambia.
The match was played in Accra, Ghana, as Fifa had previously ruled Togo's national stadium in Lome unfit to host qualifiers.
Eritrea, the fourth team drawn in the group, had withdrawn prior to qualifying getting underway citing problems within the country's FA.
In other matches, Tanzania beat Cape Verde 3-1, and Namibia beat Zimbabwe 4-2 in an action-packed game in Windhoek.
The countries certain of a spot in the next round are Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Rwanda, Tunisia and Burkina Faso. Most of the other 44 will have to wait until all the final ties are completed to find out whether they will fill one of the 20 places in the final group stages.
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