AFCON 2021 qualifiers: results and fixtures

Senegal struggled to find form on Wednesday. Nigeria scrape a 2-1 home win over neighbors Benin while Cameroon were held to a home draw by the Cape Verde Islands.

Cameroon are hosts of the next finals but are also participating in the qualifying competition. Assan Cessay scored two goals in two minutes for the Gambia and they ended up winning 3-1 in Angola to secure their first away victory in a Cup of Nations or World Cup qualifier.

There were also wins for the Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Namibia and Sudan and a potential valuable away point for Lesotho, who drew 1-1 in Sierra Leone.

Senegal, runners-up in this year’s Nations Cup in Egypt, beat Congo 2-0 at home with first-half goals from Sidy Sarr and Habib Diallo as Sadio Mane provided an assist.

Nigeria went behind after nine minutes in Uyo where Stephane Sessegnon scored for Benin but a penalty from Victor Osimhen and the winner from Samuel Kalu made the victors.

Cameroon have played out a goalless draw in a stuttering start for new coach Toni Conceição. Angola were ahead after two minutes through Wilson Eduardo but were hit by FC Zurich striker Cessay before Sulayman Marreh added a third for Gambia on the stroke of fulltime.

Gambia had not won in 39 previous away qualifiers, including losing in Luanda two months ago in the 2022 World Cup preliminaries.

Egypt 1-1 Kenya

Kenya managed to hold Egypt to a 1-1 draw in their 2021 Afcon qualifying Group G opener. Stars will be up against Togo at the MISC Kasarani on Monday 18th starting from 7 PM EAT under the floodlights. Tickets will be going for KShs. 200 for the regular and KShs 500 for the VIP. 

Qualifiers continue with matches every day until next Tuesday, by which time each of the 48 participating countries will have played two games each.

2021 Africa Cup of Nations 2nd group game results:

Tuesday:

• Burundi 0-3 Morocco (Group E)
• Mauritania 2-0 CAR (Group E)
• Zambia 1-2 Zimbabwe (Group H)
• Equatorial Guinea 0-1 Tunisia (Group J)
• Libya 2-1 Tanzania (Group J)
• Ethiopia 2-1 Ivory Coast (Group K)
• Niger 2-6 Madagascar (Group K)

Monday:

• Sao Tome and Principe 0-1 Ghana (Group C)
• The Gambia 2-2 DR Congo (Group D)
• Cape Verde 2-2 Mozambique (Group F)
• Comoros 0-0 Egypt (Group G)
• Kenya 1-1 Togo (Group G)
• Botswana 0-1 Algeria (Group H)

Sunday:

• Chad 0-2 Mali (Group A)
• Guinea 2-0 Namibia (Group A)
• South Sudan 1-2 Burkina Faso (Group B)
• Uganda 2-0 Malawi (Group B)
• South Africa 1-0 Sudan (Group C)
• Gabon 2-1 Angola (Group D)
• Rwanda 0-1 Cameroon (Group F)
• Eswatini 1-4 Senegal (Group I)
• Congo 3-0 Guinea Bissau (Group I)
• Benin 1-0 Sierra Leone (Group L)
• Lesotho 2-4 Nigeria (Group L)