West Africa trumps North Africa in Olympic Qualifiers

Wednesday Sep 11, 2019. 08:00

It was a good day for West Africa in Tuesday’s Africa U-23 Cup of Nations Qualifiers.

Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon and Ghana all booked their ticket to Egypt for this year’s U-23 Afcon tournament, which also serves as a qualifier for next year’s Olympic Games.

The top three teams from the eight-team tournament will compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Egypt, who will host the tournament, were the first to qualify, followed by Zambia who beat Congo 5-4 on aggregate. South Africa secured their ticket to Egypt with a 5-0 win over Zimbabwe and will be joined in Cairo in November by five West African nations.

Nigeria, champions four years ago, bounced back from a 1-0 defeat to Sudan with a 5-0 thumping of the same opponents in Asaba on Tuesday.

Ivory Coast also recovered from a first-leg defeat to eliminate Guinea before a hat-trick of aggregate victories for West African countries over their North African counterparts; including a 1-0 win for Ghana away to Algeria to round off the field.

Full List of Results:

Zimbabwe 0-0 South Africa* (0-5 on aggregate)

Nigeria* 5-0 Sudan (5-1 on aggregate)

Guinea 1-2 Ivory Coast*(2-2 on aggregate)

Mali* 1-0 Morocco (2-1 on aggregate)

Tunisia 2-1 Cameroon* (2-2 on aggregate)

Algeria 0-1 Ghana* (1-2 on aggregate)