Afcon Wrap: Burkina Faso, Guinea book Afcon ticket

by Bertin Basson

Wednesday Mar 24, 2021. 22:00

Burkina Faso and Guinea on Wednesday became the sixth and seventh nation respectively to book their place at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament, set to be hosted in Cameroon next year.

The Burkinabe, runners-up in 2013, secured their Afcon ticket with a 0-0 draw away to Uganda in Group B and with Malawi having defeated South Sudan 1-0 in Omdurman, the Cranes now need to avoid defeat in Lilongwe on Monday or miss out on a place at next year’s finals at the expense of the Flames.

Guinea defeated already qualified Mali 1-0 thanks to a solitary strike from Seydouba Soumah in Group A to book their spot at the 24-team tournament, which has been delayed by a year due to Covid-19. Victory shut the door on Namibia with Chad having been disqualified by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for government interference.

In Group C, Sudan moved level on nine points with both Ghana and South Africa with a 2-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe to keep their qualification hopes firmly alive.

Rwanda ignited their hopes of reaching the finals with a 1-0 win over Mozambique, but the result of the day came in Bahir Dar where Ethiopia rocked Madagascar 4-0 to move top of Group K ahead of their trip to Ivory Coast next week.

Burkina Faso and Guinea joined Senegal, Algeria, Mali, Tunisia and hosts Cameroon in booking their Afcon ticket, leaving 17 spots still up for grabs.

Full list of results, Wednesday 24 March:

Ethiopia 4-0 Madagascar

Rwanda 1-0 Mozambique

Sao Tome and Principe 0-2 Sudan

South Sudan 0-1 Malawi

Uganda 0-0 Burkina Faso

Guinea 1-0 Mali

Chad 0-3 Namibia (awarded following Chad’s disqualification)