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CAPE TOWN: Mohamed Salah was on target to help Egypt maintain their 100 per cent record in 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Mauritania, but Tunisia slipped to a shock 1-0 home defeat to Comoros in their fixture on Friday.
Record seven-time African champions Egypt faced stubborn resistance from Mauritania in Cairo until Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’ Hassan netted 69 minutes into the Group ‘C’ clash.
Prolific Liverpool scorer Salah put the outcome beyond doubt with a second goal 10 minutes later to maintain the perfect record of the Pharaohs after three rounds.
Runaway leaders Egypt have nine points at the midway point of the qualifiers, leaving Cape Verde, Botswana and Mauritania — all with three — battling to claim the second qualifying place for the 2025 finals in Morocco.
Tunisia were heavy favourites after starting their campaign with two wins, but despite 15 goal attempts fell to a lone strike from Rafiki Said just past the hour mark.
It was Tunisia’s first home defeat in Cup of Nations qualifiers since 2010 but they remain on top of Group ‘A’ with six points from three games. Comoros are behind them on five points.
Comoros, a tiny island nation off the south-east coast of Africa, have a habit of causing upsets, most notably when beating Ghana to reach the second round at the 2022 AFCON.
Nigeria needed a late goal to seal a 1-0 home win over Libya as German-born Lazio midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru netted four minutes from the end to spare the blushes of the 2023 finalists.
Under caretaker coach Augustin Eguavoen, three-time AFCON champions Nigeria have collected seven points in Group ‘D’. Benin have six, Rwanda two and Libya one.
The difficulty the Super Eagles experienced in breaking down the Mediterranean Knights defence can partly be explained by the absence through injury of star forward Victor Osimhen.
Ivory Coast brushed aside Sierra Leone 4-1 in San Pedro as Franck Kessie scored a brace, both netting and missing a penalty. Nicolas Pepe was also on target as they made it three wins from three.
Sadio Mane and Nicolas Jackson were both on the scoresheet for Senegal as they beat 10-man Malawi 4-0 in Diamniadio. Senegal and Burkina Faso are each on seven points at the top of the pool and favourites to qualify.
Cameroon eased to a 4-1 victory over Kenya as Bryan Mbeumo took his Premier League form with Brentford onto the international stage with a goal, to go with a penalty from Vincent Aboubakar, a first international strike for Martin Hongla and a goal from Christian Bassogog.
Victory lifted Cameroon, who boast the second best AFCON record with five titles, to the top of Group J with seven points. Zimbabwe have five, Kenya four and Namibia are pointless.
South Africa, third at the AFCON this year behind hosts and winners Ivory Coast and Nigeria, recorded the joint second biggest win in their history as they thumped Congo 5-0 in Gqeberha to continue their good form under coach Hugo Broos.
Teboho Mokoena, sidelined by Mamelodi Sundowns because of a dispute with his coach, showed no rustiness as he headed a corner into the net, then scored again via a half-volley.
Further goals from Bathusi Aubaas, who stretched the lead to 3-0 by half-time, Lyle Foster and substitute Iqraam Rayners completed the rout of a poor Congolese side.
The Group ‘K’ match in Gqeberha was halted by the Mauritanian referee for 18 minutes during the first half after several spectators entered the pitch to join goal celebrations.
Bevis Mugabi scored the only goal as group leaders Uganda beat South Sudan 1-0 in the other fixture in the pool.
Uganda and South Africa have seven points each, Congo three and South Sudan none. The co-leaders can both clinch qualification if they win on Tuesday.
There were also wins for Equatorial Guinea, Benin, Angola and Mali, but Avram Grant’s Zambia were held to a surprise 0-0 draw at home by Chad that leaves them in
second place with four points from a possible nine in their pool.
Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2024
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