CAPE TOWN — Ghana and Angola qualified for January´s African Cup of Nations finals as they finished in the top two of their group despite unconvincing performances at home.
Substitute Ernest Nuamah scored two minutes from time to secure a come-from-behind 2-1 victory for Ghana over the Central African Republic in Kumasi while Angola took second place despite being held to a goalless draw in Lubango by already-eliminated Madagascar.
Ghana finished top of the Group E on 12 points with Angola on nine, two more than the Central African Republic, who had to win their last match to qualify for the first time.
The Central African Republic did go ahead through stand-in skipper Louis Mafouta as they proved determined to write history, even without injured captain and Olympique de Marseille midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia.
West Ham United´s new signing Mohammed Kudus equalised just before halftime for Ghana and Antoine Semenyo set up the winner as he stripped the visiting defence of the ball and unselfishly passed for the 19-year-old Nuamah to net the winner from close range.
Ghana and Angola will join Algeria, Burkina Faso, the Cape Verde Islands, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia at the finals in the Ivory Coast, who qualified automatically as hosts.
Elsewhere, Libya fought back to claim a 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea in their final qualifier.
The Mediterranean Knights trailed to Jose Elo’s 62nd minute opener at the Martyrs of February Stadium in Benghazi as the final round of qualifiers started.
But Husain Taqtq’s equaliser 10 minutes from time earned Libya a share of the spoils.
The result means already-qualified Equatorial Guinea end with 13 points from their six games.
Cote d’Ivoire will host the Nations Cup finals early next year. Libya failed to qualify after a dramatic campaign.
Elsewhere, the long-awaited decision on the hosts for the African Cup of Nations finals in 2025 and 2027 will be made later this month, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said.
The hosts would be announced after a meeting of the CAF executive committee in Cairo on Sept. 27, a statement said.
The two decisions have been eagerly awaited for almost a year since CAF stripped Guinea last October of the right to host the 2025 finals and then announced it would also award the hosting of the 2007 finals at the same time.
Guinea lost the 2025 tournament after CAF found it was well behind in preparations for the 24-team tournament.
At the same time, CAF announced they were re-opening bidding and would make a choice in early 2023 but they have repeatedly put off a decision.
The deadline for declarations of interest was extended to April when CAF said they had received bids from Algeria, Morocco and Zambia, plus a co-hosting bid from Benin and Nigeria, for the 2025 finals and from Algeria, Botswana, Egypt and a joint candidacy from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for 2027.
The long-standing political rivalry between neighbours Algeria and Morocco has made the process difficult for CAF, sources in the executive committee have told Reuters.
But with Morocco bidding for only one of the two tournaments, a compromise has been engineered with the door open for it to be awarded the 2025 finals and Algeria the 2027 event.
CAF have sent evaluation teams to all bidding countries, appointing an independent assessor to oversee the inspections although the decision on the hosts will be made by the CAF executive committee.
The hosting of the Cup of Nations has run through a chequered history in the last decade, starting with South Africa stepping in to replace war-torn Libya in 2013.
In 2014 Guinea was awarded the right to host the 2023 finals, along with Cameroon (2019) and Ivory Coast (2021).
But Cameroon was declared not ready for the 2019 finals, so Egypt stepped in. Cameroon then hosted the 2021 edition, delayed for a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ivory Coast was supposed to host the 2023 event in June but it was postponed for six months because of concerns over the rainy season in West Africa.
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