The Conclusion Of The Afcon Qualifiers

The last of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers games were concluded on Wednesday, all over the continent, with the shocking result in Group A of Nigeria, the defending champions failing to qualify to the tournament after playing a 2 - 2 draw at home with South Africa.

The visiting South African team, popularly known as the Bafana - Bafana had already qualified to the tournament, but Nigeria needed a win in the match to seal up their qualification.

While the third placed Congo which had 7 points as Nigeria before the games began, needed to win to qualify if only Nigeria fail to win their match.

Nigeria Vs South Africa

Before the matches began, Nigeria was second on the Group A table as a result of CAF rule of head to head advantage between two teams that have the same points.

Anyway, Nigeria failed to get a win, while Congo playing away in Sudan got a 1 - 0 win to finish second on the table.

Nigeria still failed to clinch the best third finisher on the tables as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) beat them to it with 9 points to their 8 points.

In Group B, Mali made it through to the second position by beating Algeria 2 - 0 which had already qualified with 15 points. Mali finished with 9 points.

The Group C qualifiers was already decided last weekend, when the two teams of Gabon and Burkina Faso went through. So the Wednesday match was just to know, which team will finish on top of the table.

So Gabon finished on top of the table with 12 points after beating Lesotho 4 - 2.  Burkina Faso came second after playing a 1 - 1 draw with Angola, finishing with 11 points.

In Group D, Ivory Coast needed a draw while hosting Cameroon the table leader with 14 points, which had already qualified.

Ivory Coast qualified after playing a 0 - 0 goalless draw, and finishing second with 10 points to the third placed DRC with 9 points. Fortunately, for the DRC they also qualified, after beating Sierra Leone 3 - 1. 

Before the Wednesday matches, the Group E was more or less open to the four teams to qualify. Ghana was on top of the table with 8 points, while Guinea and Uganda had 7 points and Togo had 6 points.

So you see, the home teams of Ghana and Guinea had to fight hard to win in order to make sure of their qualifications. And they both did not disappoint their fans, as the Nigerian team did. Ghana won Togo 3 - 1 to finish top with 11 points while Guinea defeated Uganda 2 - 0 to finish second with 10 points.

In Group F, Cape Verde and Zambia had already qualified last weekend first and second respectively. Zambia beat Cape Verde 1 - 0 in their last match on Wednesday, but that did not change their positions on the table. Cape Verde top the table with 12 points and Zambia Finished with 11 points.

The last group which is Group G, already had Tunisia and Senegal qualified, before the Wednesday games. Senegal won Botswana 3 - 0 to finish second on the table with 13 points, while Tunisia defeated Egypt 2 - 1 and finished on top of the table with 14 points.

As I mentioned earlier on in this article, the Democratic Republic of Congo, completed the 16 teams to participate in the January 17 to Febrary 8 tournament in Equatorial Guinea. The DRC finished as the team with the best result of all the teams, that finished third on the table.
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