African WCQ Roundup: June 20 — 21

African World Cup qual­i­fy­ing is halfway to its con­clu­sion as the Moth­er­land con­tin­ues to give the foot­balling world more to talk about as this round of matches ranged from the hardly inter­est­ing 0–0 draws like Morocco v Togo to 5 goal thril­ers like Burk­ina Faso v Côte d’Ivoire. Inter­est­ingly, the vis­it­ing team took at least 1 point in all but 3 matches this weekend.

The match between Burk­ina Faso & Côte d’Ivoire was a bat­tle for top spot in Group E with Les Éléphants being mas­sively tested by a sur­pris­ing Burk­ina Faso side. Goals by Euro­pean stars Yaya Toure & Didier Drogba did not decide the match but an own goal by Burk­ina defender Mamadou Tall gave Côte d’Ivoire the 3–2 road win as Les Éléphants con­tin­ued their per­fect start in World Cup qualifying.

Alge­ria moved to the top of Group C with their big 2–0 road win against Zam­bia. Rangers’ defender Mad­jid Bougherra opened the scor­ing in the 21st minute as The Desert Foxes kept the clean sheet and remained unbeaten in Group C. Alge­ria look to be the favorite to win Group C as they are unbeaten in their last 6 WC Qualifiers.

On Sun­day, Mali got its 1st win of the final group stage with a 3–1 home win in the cap­i­tal city of Bamako against Benin. The Eagles’ French Con­nec­tion of Mod­ibo Maïga of Le Mans and Mamadou Diallo of Le Havre led Mali to vic­tory with goals in the 21st and 75th minute respec­tively after Benin stunned the crowd with a 12th minute goal by Bahrain based mid­fielder Sei­dath Tchomogo. Mali’s vic­tory moves them into 2nd place behind Ghana in Group D.

Here are the results & standings:

STANDINGS

SATURDAY, JUNE 20th
Morocco 0 — 0 Togo

STANDINGS

SATURDAY, JUNE 20th
Kenya 2 — 1 Mozam­bique
KEN: Julius Owino (5′) & Mac­don­ald Mariaga (pen 76′)
MOZ: Domingues (49′)

Tunisia 0 — 0 Nigeria

STANDINGS

SATURDAY, JUNE 20th
Zam­bia 0 — 2 Alge­ria
ALG: Mad­jid Bougherra (21′) & Rafik Saifi (66′)

STANDINGS

SATURDAY, JUNE 20th
Sudan 0 — 2 Ghana
GHA: Matthew Amoah (5′, 52′)

SUNDAY, JUNE 21st
Mali 3 — 1 Benin
MLI: Mod­ibo Maiga (21′), Mamadou Diallo (75′), Frédéric Kanouté (83′)
BEN: Sei­dath Tchomogo (12′)

STANDINGS

SATURDAY, JUNE 20th
Burk­ina Faso 2 — 3 Côte d’Ivoire
BFO: Jonathan Pitroipa (27′), Aris­tide Bance (78′)
CIV: Yaya Toure (13′), Mamadou Tall (og 55′), Didier Drogba (70′)

SUNDAY, JUNE 21st
Guinea 2 — 1 Malawi
GUI: Pas­cal Fein­douno (24′, 42′)
MWI: Chiukepo Msowoya (89′)

Tagged as: Africa, Qualifiers, World Cup