Asia chooses top ten

On the day that Asia filtered its World Cup hopefuls down to 10 and Africa began opened its path towards the 2013 Cup of Nations, there were friendly matches taking place in other corners of the globe.

Uzbekistan finished above Asian champions Japan with a shock 1-0 win in Toyota as both teams progressed to the next round with Japan losing top Asian spot in the rankings while Bahrain’s 10-0 routing of Indonesia was in vein as Qatar drew 2-2 in Iran. North Korea bowed out of the World Cup with a 1-1 draw in Tajikistan while down and out China finished with a 3-1 home win against Jordan and the United Arab Emirates ended their miserable campaign with a 4-2 win at home to already qualified Lebanon. Iraq sank Singapore 7-1 in Qatar.

In Africa Sao Tome & Principe celebrated a 2-1 home win against Sierra Leone and Cape Verde returned from Madagascar with a 4-0 victory while Uganda lost 3-1 away to Congo and Chad overcame Malawi 3-2 in their home match. A single goal gave Liberia a home win against Namibia while Burundi defeated their visitors from Zimbabwe 2-1 and Algeria won by the same scoreline in Gambia.

Among friendly matches the U.S.A. triumphed 1-0 on Italian soil while Germany lost 2-1 at home to France and Colombia defeated Mexico 2-0 in Miami. Turkey surrendered 2-1 at home to Slovakia and Russia defeated Denmark 2-0 in Copenhagen while Palestine stunned Azerbaijan 2-0 in Dubai.

Zambia flying high in Africa

A penalty shootout against the Ivory Coast in Libreville Gabon - close to the scene of the 1993 plane crash that claimed the lives of the entire Zambian squad travelling to a World Cup qualifier against Senegal - landed Zambia the Africa Cup of Nations. Ironically their campaign began with a 2-1 victory over Senegal who turned out to have a disastrous tournament dropping 38 places in the rankings after further 2-1 defeats to co hosts Equatorial Guinea and lowly ranked Libya. Equatorial Guinea started with a 1-0 win over Libya and reached the knockout stage while the other co hosts Gabon who had defeated Tunisia 1-0 were finally knocked out on penalties by Mali who had got the better of Guinea with a single goal in their group and finished 3^rd in Africa with a 2-0 triumph over Ghana. The biggest scoreline was the 6-1 battering of Botswana by Guinea who also held Ghana to a 1-1 draw. Burkina Faso finished bottom of their group after losing 2-1 to Angola and Sudan. The impressive Sudanese later came unstuck 3-0 against Zambia who went on to defeat the Black Stars of Ghana 1-0 securing their final clash with the Elephants. In the qualifiers for next year’s Cup of Nations Lesotho lost 1-0 at Sao Tome & Principe and could only manage a goalless draw in the return match.