Algeria, Nigeria and
Cameroon — three of the five African qualifiers for the last World Cup — were
drawn together Friday in a group from which only the winners go to the 2018
finals in Russia.
Group B was completed by Zambia, shock winners of the 2012
Africa Cup of Nations, after a one-hour ceremony in Cairo.
Each of the five
group winners qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Cameroon (seven appearances) and
Nigeria (five) are the most successful African countries in World Cup
qualifying and Algeria (four) have also done well.
Famed French coach Herve
Renard, the only man to win the Cup of Nations with two countries, is now in
charge of Morocco and they will come up against his former team, Ivory Coast,
in Group C.
This mini-league has a distinct French flavour with Michel Dussuyer
coaching the Ivorians and Alain Giresse in charge of Mali. Gabon compete the
line-up.
Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo look the strongest teams
in Group A, which includes Guinea and Libya. Egypt face Ghana, who beat them
7-3 in a 2014 World Cup play-off, in Group E along with Congo Brazzaville and
Uganda.
Senegal will be expected to top Group D with Cape Verde, South Africa
and Burkina Faso their rivals.
The first matchday is scheduled for October 3-11
this year and the last for November 6-14 next year.
Before the draw, the
audience stood silent for a minute in memory of Nigerian football legend
Stephen Keshi, a Cup of Nations winner as a player and coach who died this
month aged 54.
The weeks preceding the event were overshadowed by constantly
changing FIFA African rankings, on which the seedings were based, due to
protests from unnamed national football associations.
After monthly FIFA rankings
covering all the continents were released early June, an updated version
covering only Africa was issued following Cup of Nations matchday 5 qualifiers.
Further protests led to fresh rankings being issued three days before the draw
only for those to be declared null and void by a FIFA emergency committee. The
seedings used in the draw were those released after the Cup of Nations
qualifiers with Tunisia the big winners, moving from second to first seeds.
Egypt (first to second seeds) and Guinea and Cameroon (second to third) were
the chief losers amid growing confusion. Draw Group A: Tunisia, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Guinea, Libya Group B: Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia
Group C: Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Gabon Group D: Senegal, Cape Verde, South
Africa, Burkina Faso Group E: Ghana, Egypt, Congo Brazzaville, Uganda Matchdays
1: Oct 3-11 2016 2: Nov 7-15 2016 3/4: Aug 28-Sept 5 2017 5: Oct 2-10 2017 6:
Nov 6-14 2017 Note: group winners qualify for 2018 World Cup in Russia
Source : vanguardngr
0 Comments