2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) section of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification saw 52 teams competing for 5 spots of the 32 spots in the final tournament in Brazil.

Format

Fifty-two out of the 53 national associations affiliated to CAF entered the qualifying to determine the continent’s five slots for the next World Cup.^[1]

The proposed format, announced on 16 May 2011, began in November 2011 with a first round of 12 two-legged knock-out ties. The ties, involving the 24 lowest-ranked teams according to FIFA World Rankings, were drawn in Brazil on 30 July 2011.

The 12 winners joined the remaining 28 CAF entrants in the second round, which consists of 10 groups of 4. The winners of each group – held between June 2012 and September 2013 – advanced to a third round of 5 two-legged knock-out ties. The 5 winners of these ties – held in October and November 2013 – advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.

Entrants

The July 2011 FIFA Ranking were used to seed the teams for the first two rounds, both of which were drawn in Brazil on 30 July 2011.^[2] (World rankings shown in brackets)^[3]

Notes

•  Mauritania did not participate in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.^[4]

First round

The first round consisted of 12 home-and-away ties, featured the 24 lowest ranked teams in Africa. The ties were drawn at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The winners of these series proceeded to the second round.

Seeding

The July 2011 FIFA Ranking was used to seed the teams.

Matches

The first legs were scheduled for 11–12 November 2011, with the second legs on 15–16 November 2011.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Seychelles	0–7	Kenya	0–3	0–4
Guinea-Bissau	1–2	Togo	1–1	0–1
Djibouti	0–8	Namibia	0–4	0–4
Mauritius	w/o	Liberia	—	—
Comoros	1–5	Mozambique	0–1	1–4
Equatorial Guinea	3–2	Madagascar	2–0	1–2
Somalia	0–5	Ethiopia	0–0	0–5
Lesotho	3–2	Burundi	1–0	2–2
Eritrea	2–4	Rwanda	1–1	1–3
Swaziland	2–8	DR Congo	1–3	1–5
São Tomé and Príncipe	1–6	Congo	0–5	1–1
Chad	2–2 (a)	Tanzania	1–2	1–0

• Note: Mauritius withdrew from the tournament on 31 October 2011.^[5] Liberia automatically advanced to the second round.

Second round

The second round saw the top 28 ranked CAF teams joined by the 12 winners from the first round. These teams were drawn into ten groups of four teams at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The matches were played from 1 June 2012 to 7 September 2013. The top team from each group advanced to the third round.

Seeding

The July 2011 FIFA Ranking was used to seed the teams.

^† First round winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw

Groups

Cameroon were suspended by FIFA on 4 July 2013 for government interference.^[6] The suspension was lifted on 22 July 2013.^[7]

Note: Scores marked by ^* are results awarded by FIFA.

Group A

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ethiopia 6 4 1 1 8 6 +2 13  South Africa 6 3 2 1 12 5 +7 11  Botswana 6 2 1 3 8 10 −2 7  Central African Republic 6 1 0 5 5 12 −7 3

Botswana  — 3–2 3–0* 1–1 Central African Republic  2–0 — 1–2 0–3 Ethiopia  1–0 2–0 — 2–1 South Africa  4–1 2–0 1–1 —

Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Tunisia 6 4 2 0 13 6 +7 14  Cape Verde 6 3 0 3 9 7 +2 9  Sierra Leone 6 2 2 2 10 10 0 8  Equatorial Guinea 6 0 2 4 6 15 −9 2

Cape Verde  — 3–0* 1–0 1–2 Equatorial Guinea  0–3* — 2–2 1–1 Sierra Leone  2–1 3–2 — 2–2 Tunisia  3–0* 3–1 2–1 —

Group C

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ivory Coast 6 4 2 0 15 5 +10 14  Morocco 6 2 3 1 9 8 +1 9  Tanzania 6 2 0 4 8 12 −4 6  Gambia 6 1 1 4 4 11 −7 4

Gambia  — 0–3 1–1 2–0 Ivory Coast  3–0 — 1–1 2–0 Morocco  2–0 2–2 — 2–1 Tanzania  2–1 2–4 3–1 —

Group D

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ghana 6 5 0 1 18 3 +15 15  Zambia 6 3 2 1 11 4 +7 11  Lesotho 6 1 2 3 4 15 −11 5  Sudan 6 0 2 4 3 14 −11 2

Ghana  — 7–0 4–0 2–1 Lesotho  0–2 — 0–0 1–1 Sudan  1–3 1–3 — 0–3* Zambia  1–0 4–0 1–1 —

Group E

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Burkina Faso 6 4 0 2 7 4 +3 12  Congo 6 3 2 1 7 3 +4 11  Gabon 6 2 1 3 5 6 −1 7  Niger 6 1 1 4 6 12 −6 4

Burkina Faso  — 0–3* 1–0 4–0 Congo  0–1 — 1–0 1–0 Gabon  1–0 0–0 — 4–1 Niger  0–1 2–2 3–0* —

Group F

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Nigeria 6 3 3 0 7 3 +4 12  Malawi 6 1 4 1 4 5 −1 7  Kenya 6 1 3 2 4 5 −1 6  Namibia 6 1 2 3 2 4 −2 5

Kenya  — 0–0 1–0 0–1 Malawi  2–2 — 0–0 1–1 Namibia  1–0 0–1 — 1–1 Nigeria  1–1 2–0 1–0 —

Group G

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Egypt 6 6 0 0 16 7 +9 18  Guinea 6 3 1 2 12 8 +4 10  Mozambique 6 0 3 3 2 10 −8 3  Zimbabwe 6 0 2 4 4 9 −5 2

Egypt  — 4–2 2–0 2–1 Guinea  2–3 — 6–1 1–0 Mozambique  0–1 0–0 — 0–0 Zimbabwe  2–4 0–1 1–1 —

Group H

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Algeria 6 5 0 1 13 4 +9 15  Mali 6 2 2 2 7 7 0 8  Benin 6 2 2 2 8 9 −1 8  Rwanda 6 0 2 4 3 11 −8 2

Algeria  — 3–1 1–0 4–0 Benin  1–3 — 1–0 2–0 Mali  2–1 2–2 — 1–1 Rwanda  0–1 1–1 1–2 —

Group I

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Cameroon 6 4 1 1 8 3 +5 13  Libya 6 2 3 1 5 3 +2 9  DR Congo 6 1 3 2 3 3 0 6  Togo 6 1 1 4 4 11 −7 4

Cameroon  — 1–0 1–0 2–1 DR Congo  0–0 — 0–0 2–0 Libya  2–1 0–0 — 2–0 Togo  0–3* 2–1 1–1 —

Group J

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Senegal 6 3 3 0 9 4 +5 12  Uganda 6 2 2 2 5 6 −1 8  Angola 6 1 4 1 7 5 +2 7  Liberia 6 1 1 4 3 9 −6 4

Angola  — 3–0* 1–1 1–1 Liberia  0–0 — 0–2 2–0 Senegal  1–1 3–1 — 1–0 Uganda  2–1 1–0 1–1 —

Third round

The third round saw the 10 group winners from the second round drawn into five home-and-away ties. The winners of each tie advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Seeding

The draw of the play-offs was held on 16 September 2013 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo.^[8] The teams were seeded based on the September 2013 edition of the FIFA Ranking (shown below in brackets).^[9][10]

Matches

The matches were played in the periods of 11–15 October and 16–19 November 2013.^[2][11]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ivory Coast	4–2	Senegal	3–1	1–1
Ethiopia	1–4	Nigeria	1–2	0–2
Tunisia	1–4	Cameroon	0–0	1–4
Ghana	7–3	Egypt	6–1	1–2
Burkina Faso	3–3 (a)	Algeria	3–2	0–1

Goalscorers

There were 365 goals in 152 matches, for an average of 2.34 goals per match.

6 goals

• Mohamed Aboutrika
• Mohamed Salah
• Asamoah Gyan

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goals

References

External links

• Results and schedule (FIFA.com version)
• Results and schedule (CAFonline.com version)