Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana face nervous finishes to Africa Cup of Nations qualifying this week, and the embarrassment of possibly sitting out the continental championship only months after playing at the World Cup. The three are not yet certain of a place at next years tournament with one round of games to go. The last six of 16 spots in January and February in Equatorial Guinea will be decided in the last-round scramble on Wednesday, when Republic of Congo, Congo, Uganda and Malawi could be surprise qualifiers. Defending champion Nigerias situation was dire after it failed to win any of its first three qualifiers and responded by firing 2013 African Cup-winning coach Stephen Keshi. But with Keshi re-instated after his temporary replacement insisted he was still the best man for the job, Nigeria won 2-0 in Republic of Congo this weekend to climb into the qualifying places. That means Nigeria will scrape through if it beats already-qualified South Africa at home on Wednesday. However, anything less could see Republic of Congo go through. Algeria, Cape Verde, Tunisia, South Africa, Zambia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Senegal have already qualified alongside Equatorial Guinea, the new stand-in host.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:44:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015