2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round

Last updated
2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round
Tournament details
Dates20–26 March 2024
Teams8 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played8
Goals scored15 (1.88 per match)
Top scorer(s) Flag of Eswatini.svg Sabelo Ndzinisa
Flag of Somalia.svg Mohamed Awad
(2 goals each)
2023
2027

The preliminary round of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification tournament decided the four teams which advanced to the group stage of the qualification tournament. The preliminary round consisted of the eight lowest-ranked teams among the 52 entrants, and was held from 20 to 26 March 2024.

Contents

The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format. [1] The four winners: Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan advanced to the group stage to join the 44 teams which entered directly. [2]

Draw

The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. [1] The eight involved national teams were seeded into two pots of four based on the FIFA World Rankings from 15 February 2024 (shown in parentheses). [3]

Seychelles (199) and Eritrea (unranked) were excluded from the qualifiers.

The teams in bold qualified for the qualifying group stage. [2]

Pot 1Pot 2

Flag of Eswatini.svg  Eswatini (149)
Flag of Liberia.svg  Liberia (152)
Flag of South Sudan.svg  South Sudan (166)
Flag of Mauritius.svg  Mauritius (177)

Flag of Chad.svg  Chad (181)
Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg  São Tomé and Príncipe (191)
Flag of Djibouti.svg  Djibouti (192)
Flag of Somalia.svg  Somalia (198)

Matches

The first legs were played on 20 and 22 March, and the second legs were played on 26 March 2024. [4] [5]

Team 1 Agg. Tooltip Aggregate scoreTeam 21st leg2nd leg
Somalia  Flag of Somalia.svg2–5Flag of Eswatini.svg  Eswatini 0–3 2–2
São Tomé and Príncipe  Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg1–1 (a)Flag of South Sudan.svg  South Sudan 1–1 0–0
Chad  Flag of Chad.svg3–1Flag of Mauritius.svg  Mauritius 1–0 2–1
Djibouti  Flag of Djibouti.svg0–2Flag of Liberia.svg  Liberia 0–2 0–0
Somalia  Flag of Somalia.svg0–3Flag of Eswatini.svg  Eswatini
Report
Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium, El Jadida (Morocco)
Referee: Andre Kolissala Mbangui (Central African Republic)
Eswatini  Flag of Eswatini.svg2–2Flag of Somalia.svg  Somalia
Report
Mbombela Stadium, Mbombela (South Africa)
Referee: Joseph Odey Ogabor (Nigeria)

Eswatini won 5–2 on aggregate.


São Tomé and Príncipe  Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg1–1Flag of South Sudan.svg  South Sudan
Report
Berkane Municipal Stadium, Berkane (Morocco)
Referee: Alhasan Bass (Gambia)
South Sudan  Flag of South Sudan.svg0–0Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg  São Tomé and Príncipe
Report
Berkane Municipal Stadium, Berkane (Morocco)
Referee: Keren Yocette (Seychelles)

1–1 on aggregate. South Sudan won on away goals.


Chad  Flag of Chad.svg1–0Flag of Mauritius.svg  Mauritius
Report
Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium, Yaoundé (Cameroon)
Referee: Ahmed Hassan Hussein (Somalia)
Mauritius  Flag of Mauritius.svg1–2Flag of Chad.svg  Chad
Report
Cote d'Or National Sports Complex, Saint Pierre
Referee: Hassen Corneh (Liberia)

Chad won 3–1 on aggregate.


Djibouti  Flag of Djibouti.svg0–2Flag of Liberia.svg  Liberia
Report
Stade de Marrakech, Marrekech (Morocco)
Referee: Mehrez Melki (Tunisia)
Liberia  Flag of Liberia.svg0–0Flag of Djibouti.svg  Djibouti
Report

Liberia won 2–0 on aggregate.

Goalscorers

There were 15 goals scored in 8 matches, for an average of 1.88 goals per match.

2 goals

1 goal

References

  1. 1 2 "TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Preliminary Draw conducted". CAFOnline.com . 20 February 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Chad and Eswatini reach group stage of TotalEnergies AFCON 2025 qualifiers". Confederation of African Football. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  3. "Men's Ranking". FIFA. 15 February 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  4. "TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 Preliminary Qualifiers get underway on Wednesday". CAFOnline.com . 20 March 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  5. "TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Qualification 2025 Morocco - Results, fixtures, tables and stats - Global Sports Archive". globalsportsarchive.com. Retrieved 2024-03-28.