Africa Cup Of Nations 2019: Who’s Qualified for Finals?

Shocking results, amazing celebrations, and intriguing displays ensured a lively ending of the final round of group stage qualifications for the African Cup of Nations, due to take place from June 21 to July 19 this year.

The tournament is set to be held in Egypt after original hosts Cameroon were snatched the hosting rights due to lack of preparation and insecurity in the country.

Here’s a quick round-up of the weekend action and who’s made it through to the tournament finals.

In Group A, Senegal topped the group with 16 points after a 2-0 win over Madagascar to complete their unbeaten run in the campaign.

Mbaye Niang scored both goals as the Teranga Lions underlined their status as one of the favorites for the AFCON finals.

Madagascar, who have also qualified for the 32nd edition of the competition, remained second in the group standings with 10 points.

Equatorial Guinea finished third with six points after a 4-1 win over bottom placed Sudan, who only scooped three points in the qualifiers.

In the match played at Al-Hilal Stadium, Spanish born Emilio Nsue netted a brace for the Nzalang Nationale with other goals coming from Pablo Ganet and Pedro Obiang, who was controversially swooped to turn for Equatorial Guinea seven years ago.

In Group B, Morocco finished top of the group with 11 points, same as defending champions Cameroon, with goal difference separating the two sides.

The Atlas Lions were held to a goalless stalemated by hosts Malawi in a dead rubber played at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

Cameroon easily beat visiting Comoros 3-0 in Younde courtesy of goals from Eric-Maxim Choupo Moting, Christian Bassogog and Clinton N’Jie.

In Group C, Mali handed South Sudan a 3-0 defeat in a match played at the Stade du 26 Mars in Bamako on Saturday evening, to end four points clear atop of the group.

Nantes forward Kalifa Coulibaly, Belgium-based Moussa Djenepo and Adama Traore scored the Eagles goals in a victory that moved them up to 14 points from their allotted fixtures.

South Sudan remained the only country to end the campaign without a single point as they lost all six matches.

Burundi will join Mali following their 1-1 draw against Gabon in Bujumbura. The draw sealed their passage to a first AFCON tournament in their history.

In Group D, Algeria topped the pool with 11 points after their 1-1 draw against Gambia in a match played at the Stade Mustapha Tchaker.

Mehdi Abeid scored for the hosts two minutes before the end of first half, through a powerful shot from a tight angle to beat Scorpions goalie Madou Jobe.

Futty Danso grabbed a late equalizer for the Gambia, who finished their campaign with six points.

Meanwhile, it was a winner takes all decider in the game between Benin and Togo for the runners-up spot.

David Djigla and Steve Mounie netted Squirrels goals with veteran striker Emmanuel Adebayor scoring an equalizer for the Hawks.

The result sees Benin finish second in Group D with ten points while Togo remained at the bottom with five points.

In Group E, South Africa easily beat Libya 2-1 in a match played at the Stade Taieb Mhiri in Tunis, Tunisia on Sunday. Needing only to draw in order to progress to the finals, Stuart Baxter’s side took a 50th-minute lead through Percy Tau.

However, Ahmad Benali converted a penalty in the 66th minute to give South African fans an anxious closing 24 minutes of play.

Tau eased their fears, however, with his second of the match in the 69th minute as Bafana held on to secure a famous 2-1 victory.

When all was said and done, Bafana qualified second with 12 points behind Nigeria, who beat a much improved Seychelles 3-1 on Friday.

Odion Ighalo scored a first-half penalty kick, while Henry Onyekuru and Moses Simon scored in the second half for Nigeria. Boby Melaine had drawn visitors level in the 41st minute.

With that result, Nigeria ended the campaign top of the group with 13 points whereas Seychelles remained bottom with one point.

In Group F, there was little to play for in the group as Ghana and Kenya, who had both qualified, faced each other in a match played at the Accra Sports Stadium. The Black Stars came out 1-0 as the winners thanks to Caleb Ekuban’s 82^nd minute goal.

Ghana finished top with nine points with Kenya second at seven points, while Ethiopia remained third with a single point.

In Group G, DR Congo secured their place in this year’s tournament by beating Liberia 1-0 in a match played at Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa on Sunday afternoon.

The Leopards leapfrogged the Lone Stars on the group standings thanks to a second-half strike from Cedric Bakambu.

At full time, thousands of fans spilled onto the pitch in celebration with some supporters appearing to try and pull the crossbar down at one end.

DRC are joined in qualification for Egypt 2019 by Zimbabwe, who defeated Congo in another winner takes all concurrent game in Harare.

In Group H, Guinea and Ivory Coast qualified with 12 and 11 points respectively, while Central Africa Republic finished third with six points.

At the bottom of the standings is Rwanda who ended the campaign with only two points from possible 18 points. In their last match against Ivory Coast, the Wasps lost 3-0 at Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan.

Nicolas Pepe put the hosts ahead in the 7th minute to hand Ibrahim Kamara’s side a 1-0 first-half lead. Manchester United center-back Eric Bailly doubled the lead in the 67th minute before Maxwel Cornet completed the rout for Amavubi with 18 minutes to clock.

The Central African Republic, who had already been eliminated, played against Guinea in Bangui on Sunday and the dead rubber resulted into a goalless draw.

In Group I, Angola topped the group with 12 points, same as Mauritania who finished second with the same number of points.

The Pancras Negras sneaked through to their eight Africa Cup of Nations tournament after beating already eliminated Botswana by a solitary goal.

Former Portugal youth international Eduardo Wilson struck in the 21st minute for the winning goal.

In another Group I match, Burkina Faso ended their campaign on a positive note with a 1-0 win over Mauritania.

Bertrand Traoré scored in the 19th minute with a wonderful volley beating Brahim Souleimane between Al-Murabitun goal posts.

However, the result was not enough for them to book a spot in Egypt, as they ended their campaign third in group standings with ten points, while Mauritania ended the campaign second with 12 points, behind Angola also on 12 points.

In Group J, Tunisia and Egypt had both already qualified prior to the final round of games.

For Tunisia, they thumped eSwatini 4-0 to complete a double over the Cosafa side, having defeated their visitors 2-0 in Manzini last year.

Syam Ben Youssef, Anice Badri, Naim Sliti and Yassine Meriah netted for the Carthage Eagles, who finished top on the group with 15 points.

Egypt were held to a one-all stalemate by Niger at the Stade General Seyni Kountche in Niamey on Saturday, to end the qualifiers at 13 points.

In Group K, Mozambique were dramatically denied a place at the finals after they drew 2-2 with hosts Guinea-Bissau at Estadio 24 de Setembro in Bissau on Saturday evening.

The South Africans needed a victory to have any chance of qualifying but after scoring what seemed to be a late winner, they conceded a last-minute equalizer.

The results mean the Djurtus and Namibia, who were hammered 4-1 by Zambia in a concurrent match in Lusaka, will be in the AFCON draw.

In Group L, Tanzania made sure that East Africa will be fully represented after they beat Uganda 3-0 in at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam to qualify.

Heading into the final round of qualification matches, Tanzania needed to beat hitherto qualified Uganda and hope Lesotho fail to win against Cape Verde.

This went to script with Lesotho drawing 0-0 with Cape Verde while in Tanzania, the Taifa Stars picked a comfortable victory to qualify for their first Cup of Nations since 1980.

The group draw for AFCON 2019 will take place on April 12 in Cairo, with the tournament starting on June 21.

List of African Cup of Nation finalists are:

Egypt, Madagascar, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda, Mali, Guinea, Algeria, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Ghana, Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Benin, Tanzania and South Africa.