{"id":37301,"date":"2023-06-17T16:27:14","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T16:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=37301"},"modified":"2023-06-17T16:27:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T16:27:59","slug":"afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play","title":{"rendered":"Afcon qualifiers: The state of play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>With the penultimate round of Afcon qualifiers taking place in the coming week here\u2019s what you need to know across all 12 groups.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s qualified?<\/b><\/p>\n

As it stands, seven nations have already booked their place for the main Afcon tournament taking place in January.<\/p>\n

South Africa have also already qualified in Group K after missing out on the last edition. Their last qualifying game is against Morocco who have followed up their historic World Cup campaign by securing their Afcon spot with two games to spare.<\/p>\n

Egypt, who hold the record with seven Afcon titles, confirmed that they will have an opportunity to increase that tally after they defeated Guinea this week.<\/p>\n

Two other North African giants have booked their spot. Tunisia, who were also at the World Cup in Qatar, have secured qualification and two-time winners Algeria have already wrapped up top spot in their group with four wins out of four.<\/p>\n

Afcon hosts, Cote d\u2019Ivoire, have had no problems negotiating their group and can relax with two group games to spare. Other West African countries that have already qualified include defending champions Senegal and Burkina Faso, who reached the semi-finals of the last tournament.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s nearly qualified?<\/b><\/p>\n

Nigeria are on the verge of qualifying and avoiding defeat in Sierra Leone on Sunday will confirm it. If they pull that off, it will simultaneously confirm Guinea-Bissau\u2019s qualification.<\/p>\n

A draw for Cape Verde this weekend against Burkina Faso would be enough to secure their fourth qualification for the tournament. The same result for Namibia against Burundi will also be enough for them to go to Cote d\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n

Cameroon are also odds on to qualify, but will have to wait until their game against Burundi in September to confirm it.<\/p>\n

In Group E, Central African Republic could qualify for the first time if they beat Angola this Sunday. If they do that, Ghana would just need a draw against Madagascar to confirm a 10th successive Afcon appearance.<\/p>\n

Tanzania and Uganda are both still in the running in Group F to go through along with Algeria, but it can only be confirmed in September which of those two will get that spot.<\/p>\n

In Group G, Mali can make it nine Afcon tournaments in a row if they beat Congo. In Group J, Equatorial Guinea are only a point away going into Saturday\u2019s game against Tunisia.<\/p>\n

Group I is the most tightly fought with all teams still in contention. We\u2019ll have a better idea after Gabon\u2019s game against DR Congo on Sunday followed by Sudan\u2019s meeting with Mauritania on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s not going through?<\/b><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, some nations have no hope of qualifying going into this week\u2019s penultimate round of fixtures.<\/p>\n

Sao Tome and Principe fall into that category, after conceding 19 goals in their four Group A games. Madagascar are also in that bracket along with fellow Southern nations Botswana and Lesotho.<\/p>\n

South Sudan\u2019s dreams of making the tournament for the first time were officially ended with their loss at home against Gambia this week.<\/p>\n

Liberia are already eliminated in a truncated Group K after Zimbabwe\u2019s Fifa suspension. Kenya also had to deal with a suspension that took them out of the running without a ball being kicked.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. With the penultimate round of Afcon qualifiers taking place in the coming week here\u2019s what you need to know across all 12 groups. Who\u2019s qualified? As it stands, seven nations have already booked their place for the main Afcon tournament taking place in January. South Africa have also already qualified in Group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":37300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-37301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nAfcon qualifiers: The state of play - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the penultimate round of Afcon qualifiers taking place in the coming week here\u2019s what you need to know across all 1 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afcon qualifiers: The state of play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the penultimate round of Afcon qualifiers taking place in the coming week here\u2019s what you need to know across all 1 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-17T16:27:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-17T16:27:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/06\/sm_1687001850.967223.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Afcon qualifiers: The state of play\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-17T16:27:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-17T16:27:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play\"},\"wordCount\":565,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/06\/sm_1687001850.967223.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/afcon-qualifiers-the-state-of-play\",\"name\":\"Afcon qualifiers: The state of play - 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