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2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Tournament details
Dates	12 April – 19 November 2014
Teams	51 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	125
Goals scored	268 (2.14 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jonathan Pitroipa (6 goals)
← 2013 2017 →

Qualification for championships (CAF)
FIFA World Cup 1934 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 Main article: FIFA World Cup qualification
Africa Cup of Nations 1962 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2013 2015 2017 2019 Main article: Africa Cup of Nations qualifying
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The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches determined the participating teams for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

A total of 16 teams competed in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.^[1]

Prior to November 2014, it was expected that Morocco would be the host country (and thus be pre-qualified). However, as Morocco missed the 9 November deadline for confirming their willingness to host (because of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa), Morocco was expelled from the tournament.^[2]Equatorial Guinea was chosen as the new host, and despite having played in the qualifiers and been disqualified due to fielding an ineligible player, they now qualify for the tournament automatically.^[3]

Qualified teams

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking at start of event
Equatorial Guinea	00Hosts	14 November 2014	2nd	2012	Quarter-finals (2012)
Cape Verde	Group F winners	15 October 2014	2nd	2013	Quarter-finals (2013)
Algeria	Group B winners	15 October 2014	15th	2013	Winners (1990)
Tunisia	Group G winners	14 November 2014	17th	2013	Winners (2004)
South Africa	Group A winners	15 November 2014	9th	2013	Winners (1996)
Zambia	Group F runners-up	15 November 2014	17th	2013	Winners (2012)
Cameroon	Group D winners	15 November 2014	17th	2010	Winners (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002)
Gabon	Group C winners	15 November 2014	5th	2012	Quarter-finals (1996, 2012)
Burkina Faso	Group C runners-up	15 November 2014	9th	2013	Runners-up (2013)
Senegal	Group G runners-up	15 November 2014	13th	2012	Runners-up (2002)
Ivory Coast	Group D runners-up	19 November 2014	20th	2013	Winners (1992)
Ghana	Group E winners	19 November 2014	19th	2013	Winners (1963, 1965, 1978, 1982)
Guinea	Group E runners-up	19 November 2014	11th	2012	Runners-up (1976)
Mali	Group B runners-up	19 November 2014	8th	2013	Runners-up (1972)
Congo	Group A runners-up	19 November 2014	7th	2000	Winners (1972)
DR Congo	Best 3rd place	19 November 2014	17th	2013	Winners (1968, 1974)

Format

The qualifying draw was supposed to take place in Morocco on 10 March 2013 during CAF General Assembly.^[4] However, the CAF Executive Committee decided on 8 March 2013 that the qualifying draw would be held on 31 January 2014 in South Africa in line with the 2014 African Nations Championship.^[5] However, on 28 January 2014, the draw date was reported to have changed once again. The qualifying draw was held on 27 April 2014 in Cairo, Egypt (with the exception of the preliminary round which was held on 21 February 2014 in Cairo).^[6]

A total of 51 teams entered the qualification matches (Djibouti and Somalia did not enter).^[7][8] After the CAF Executive Committee meeting on 24 January 2014, it was decided that the qualifiers shall be played in the format of several qualifying rounds, as well as a group stage with seven groups consisting of four teams each. The two top teams of each group then directly qualify for the finals, along with the best third place team of the seven groups.^[9] This was different from the original proposal, which consisted of a preliminary round followed by a group stage with twelve groups of four teams.^[10]

The top 21 teams listed in the CAF Ranking shall automatically qualify for the group stage. The seven other teams playing in the group stage shall be determined following the conclusion of the qualifying rounds. The ranking is computed using the teams' results in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations finals (weighted by 3) and qualifiers, the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finals (weighted by 2) and qualifiers (weighted by 0.5), the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations finals, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. If tied on points, the tiebreaker is decided by the results of the latest editions of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Below are the ranking of the 51 teams that entered the qualification matches:^[9][11][12]

Bye to group stage	Competing in qualifying rounds
	Entering in first round	Entering in preliminary round
Nigeria (39.5 pts)  Ghana (38 pts)  Ivory Coast (36 pts)  Zambia (33 pts)  Burkina Faso (32 pts)  Mali (30 pts)  Tunisia (22.5 pts)  Algeria (18 pts)  Angola (17 pts)  Cape Verde (16.5 pts)  Togo (14.5 pts)  Egypt (14.5 pts)  South Africa (13.5 pts)  Cameroon (13.5 pts)  DR Congo (12 pts)  Ethiopia (12 pts)  Gabon (12 pts)  Niger (11 pts)  Guinea (11 pts)  Senegal (11 pts)  Sudan (10.5 pts)	Libya (10.5 pts)  Equatorial Guinea (9 pts)  Botswana (8 pts)  Malawi (7 pts)  Uganda (6.5 pts)  Mozambique (6 pts)  Benin (5.5 pts)  Sierra Leone (5 pts)  Congo (5 pts)  Central African Republic (4.5 pts)  Zimbabwe (4 pts)  Kenya (4 pts)  Liberia (3.5 pts)  Gambia (3.5 pts)  Rwanda (3.5 pts)  Tanzania (3.5 pts)  Namibia (3 pts)  Burundi (2 pts)  Lesotho (2 pts)  Guinea-Bissau (1.5 pts)  Madagascar (1.5 pts)  Chad (1 pt)  São Tomé and Príncipe (1 pt)  Seychelles (1 pts)  Comoros (0.5 pts)  Swaziland (0.5 pts)	Mauritius (0.5 pts)  Eritrea (0 pts)  Mauritania (0 pts)  South Sudan (0 pts)

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.^[11][13]

Round	Matchday	Date
Qualifying rounds	Preliminary round 1st leg	11–13 April 2014
	Preliminary round 2nd leg	18–20 April 2014
	First round 1st leg	16–18 May 2014
	First round 2nd leg	30 May–1 June 2014
	Second round 1st leg	18–20 July 2014
	Second round 2nd leg	1–3 August 2014
Group stage	Matchday 1	5–6 September 2014
	Matchday 2	10 September 2014
	Matchday 3	10–11 October 2014
	Matchday 4	15 October 2014
	Matchday 5	14–15 November 2014
	Matchday 6	19 November 2014

Qualifying rounds

In each of the qualifying rounds, teams were drawn into knock-out ties. Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the sides were level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule was applied, and if still level, the tie proceeded directly to a penalty shoot-out (no extra time was played).^[1]

Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round was held at the CAF Executive Committee on 21 February 2014 at Cairo, Egypt.^[11] The four teams ranked 48–51 played in this round.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mauritania	3–0	Mauritius	1–0	2–0
Eritrea	w/o	South Sudan	—	—

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Mauritania won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the first round.

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South Sudan advanced to the first round after Eritrea, who have a history of their players defecting whilst on international duty, withdrew.^[14][15]

First round

The draw for the first round was held on 27 April 2014 at Cairo, Egypt.^[16][17] The 26 teams ranked 22–47 and the two winners of the preliminary round played in this round. Teams ranked 22–35 were seeded, and teams ranked 36–47 and the two winners of the preliminary round were unseeded.^[18]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Liberia	1–2	Lesotho	1–0	0–2
Kenya	2–1	Comoros	1–0	1–1
Madagascar	2–2 (a)	Uganda	2–1	0–1
Mauritania	awd.	Equatorial Guinea	1–0	0–3
Namibia	1–3	Congo	1–0	0–3
Libya	0–3	Rwanda	0–0	0–3
Burundi	0–1	Botswana	0–0	0–1
Central African Republic	1–3	Guinea-Bissau	0–0	1–3
Swaziland	1–2	Sierra Leone	1–1	0–1
Gambia	awd.	Seychelles	—	—
São Tomé and Príncipe	0–4	Benin	0–2	0–2
Malawi	3–3 (a)	Chad	2–0	1–3
Tanzania	3–2	Zimbabwe	1–0	2–2
Mozambique	5–0	South Sudan	5–0	0–0

Lesotho won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Kenya won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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2–2 on aggregate. Uganda won on the away goals rule and advanced to the second round.

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Equatorial Guinea won 3–1 on aggregate. However, on 3 July 2014, the CAF announced that Equatorial Guinea were disqualified for fielding the ineligible player Thierry Fidjeu in the tie, and as a result, Mauritania advanced to the second round.^[19] Equatorial Guinea later qualified for the final tournament as replacement hosts.

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Congo won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Rwanda won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Botswana won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Guinea-Bissau won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Sierra Leone won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Seychelles advanced to the second round after Gambia were suspended from all CAF competitions for two years for deliberately fielding overage players in the 2015 African U-20 Championship qualification match against Liberia.^[20]

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Benin won 4–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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3–3 on aggregate. Malawi won on the away goals rule and advanced to the second round.

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Tanzania won 3–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Mozambique won 5–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

Second round

The draw for the second round was held on 27 April 2014 at Cairo, Egypt.^[21] The 14 winners of the first round played in this round.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Lesotho	1–0	Kenya	1–0	0–0
Uganda	3–0	Mauritania	2–0	1–0
Congo	awd.	Rwanda	2–0	0–2
Botswana	3–1	Guinea-Bissau	2–0	1–1
Sierra Leone	w/o	Seychelles	2–0	—
Benin	1–1 (3–4 p)	Malawi	1–0	0–1
Tanzania	3–4	Mozambique	2–2	1–2

Lesotho won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to Group C.

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Uganda won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to Group E.

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2–2 on aggregate. Rwanda won the penalty shoot-out. However, on 17 August 2014, the CAF announced that Rwanda were disqualified for fielding the ineligible player Daddy Birori in the tie, as it emerged that Birori had been using a different name and a Congolese passport when playing for his club side, AS Vita.^[22] As a result, Congo advanced to Group A.^[23]

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Botswana won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to Group G.

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Sierra Leone advanced to Group D after Seychelles withdrew.^[24] Seychelles were forced to forfeit after the Sierra Leone team was barred by the Seychelles immigration authorities from entering the country to play the second leg for fears over the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak.^[25]

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1–1 on aggregate. Malawi won the penalty shoot-out and advanced to Group B.

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Mozambique won 4–3 on aggregate and advanced to Group F.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 27 April 2014 at Cairo, Egypt.^[26][27] The 21 teams ranked 1–21 and the seven winners of the second round play in this round. Teams ranked 1–7 were seeded into Pot 1, teams ranked 8–14 were seeded into Pot 2, teams ranked 15–21 were seeded into Pot 3, and the seven winners of the second round were seeded into Pot 4. The 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four, with each group containing one team from each pot. Each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group, plus the best third-placed team, qualified for the finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[1]

1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;


2. 
   Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;


3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;


4. 
   Away goals scored in games between the teams concerned;


5. If, after applying criteria 1 to 4 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 9 apply;


6. Goal difference in all games;


7. Goals scored in all games;


8. Away goals scored in all games;


9. Drawing of lots.

Legend
Group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team qualify for the finals

Group A

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  South Africa 6 3 3 0 9 3 +6 12  Congo 6 3 1 2 6 6 0 10  Nigeria 6 2 2 2 9 7 +2 8  Sudan 6 1 0 5 3 11 −8 3

Congo  — 0–2 0–2 2–0 Nigeria  2–3 — 2–2 3–1 South Africa  0–0 0–0 — 2–1 Sudan  0–1 1–0 0–3 —

Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Algeria 6 5 0 1 11 4 +7 15  Mali 6 3 0 3 8 6 +2 9  Malawi 6 2 1 3 5 9 −4 7  Ethiopia 6 1 1 4 7 12 −5 4

Algeria  — 3–1 3–0 1–0 Ethiopia  1–2 — 0–0 0–2 Malawi  0–2 3–2 — 2–0 Mali  2–0 2–3 2–0 —

Group C

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Gabon 6 3 3 0 9 4 +5 12  Burkina Faso 6 3 2 1 8 4 +4 11  Angola 6 1 3 2 5 5 0 6  Lesotho 6 0 2 4 3 12 −9 2

Angola  — 0–3 0–0 4–0 Burkina Faso  1–1 — 1–1 2–0 Gabon  1–0 2–0 — 4–2 Lesotho  0–0 0–1 1–1 —

Group D

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Cameroon 6 4 2 0 9 1 +8 14  Ivory Coast 6 3 1 2 13 11 +2 10  DR Congo 6 3 0 3 10 9 +1 9  Sierra Leone 6 0 1 5 3 14 −11 1

Cameroon  — 1–0 4–1 2–0 DR Congo  0–2 — 1–2 3–1 Ivory Coast  0–0 3–4 — 2–1 Sierra Leone  0–0 0–2 1–5 —

Group E

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ghana 6 3 2 1 11 7 +4 11  Guinea 6 3 1 2 10 8 +2 10  Uganda 6 2 1 3 4 5 −1 7  Togo 6 2 0 4 7 12 −5 6

Ghana  — 3–1 3–1 1–1 Guinea  1–1 — 2–1 2–0 Togo  2–3 1–4 — 1–0 Uganda  1–0 2–0 0–1 —

Group F

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Cape Verde 6 4 0 2 9 6 +3 12  Zambia 6 3 2 1 6 2 +4 11  Mozambique 6 1 3 2 4 4 0 6  Niger 6 0 3 3 4 11 −7 3

Cape Verde  — 1–0 3–1 2–1 Mozambique  2–0 — 1–1 0–1 Niger  1–3 1–1 — 0–0 Zambia  1–0 0–0 3–0 —

Group G

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Tunisia 6 4 2 0 6 2 +4 14  Senegal 6 4 1 1 8 1 +7 13  Egypt 6 2 0 4 5 6 −1 6  Botswana 6 0 1 5 1 11 −10 1

Tunisia  — 1–0 2–1 2–1 Senegal  0–0 — 2–0 3–0 Egypt  0–1 0–1 — 2–0 Botswana  0–0 0–2 0–2 —

Ranking of third-placed teams

Group	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
D	DR Congo	6	3	0	3	10	9	+1	9
A	Nigeria	6	2	2	2	9	7	+2	8
E	Uganda	6	2	1	3	4	5	−1	7
B	Malawi	6	2	1	3	5	9	−4	7
C	Angola	6	1	3	2	5	5	0	6
F	Mozambique	6	1	3	2	4	4	0	6
G	Egypt	6	2	0	4	5	6	−1	6

Goalscorers

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goal

Notes

References

External links

• 
  Orange Africa Cup Of Nations Qualifiers, CAFonline.com