Shaping up

The Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers reached its final stages while The Asian qualifiers for the World Cup began to give a clearer picture of the automatic qualifiers and in South America their World Cup qualifiers moved into the second half of fixtures.

Botswana upset hosts Cape Verde 1-0 while Burkina Faso bounced back from an early goal to celebrate qualification in front of their home crowd by thumping Burundi 4-1 with a double from Dango Ouattara and Eswatini picked up a useless point in their 1-1 draw in Mozambique. Tunisia were stunned 1-0 at home to Comoros and Ivory Coast suffered the same fate against Sierra Leone in Liberia while Rwanda were beaten 3-0 by Benin in Ivory Coast but came from behind to win 2-1 in their own backyard. Maschak Elia scored 2 late goals in Tanzania as DR Congo secured passage to the Africa Cup of Nations finals while Gabon kept their hopes alive with 2 goals against Lesotho in South Africa and Chad held hosts Zambia to a goalless draw.

In World Cup qualifiers in Asia, South Korea scored twice in Jordan while Oman put 4 past their visitors from Kuwait with a brace from Al Mushairifi and both teams scored own goals as Australia drew 1-1 in Japan. In South America, 10 Bolivians sent Colombia home 1-0 losers while Uruguay fell to a late goal in Peru.

In the CONCACAF Nations League, Keelan Lebon scored twice as Saint Martin celebrated an unbelievable 4-0 victory in St Lucia while Sint Maarten defeated Puerto Rico 3-2 in Aruba with a double from Chovanie Amatkarijo and a single goal gave Bonaire a win over Montserrat in St Vincent. Philippines shocked Tajikistan 3-0 in the King’s Cup in Thailand.

Early September steps

 

The Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers began in September with Ethiopia earning a 0-0 draw in Tanzania, who later came from behind to defeat Guinea 2-1 in Ivory Coast, while Angola broke the deadlock in stoppage time to win in Ghana and Malawi lost 3-2 to a late goal at home to Burundi. Egypt won 3-0 at home to Cape Verde before travelling to Botswana where Trezeguet scored 2 goals in their 4-0 win while South Africa needed added time to salvage a 2-2 home draw against Uganda and there were 1-1 draws for Burkina Faso who scored in stoppage time away to Senegal and for Liberia who did the same in Togo. Ademola Lookman scored a double as Nigeria sent Benin home 3-0 losers while in an Asian Cup qualifier play-off match in Indonesia, João Pedro scored a hat-trick as East Timor swept Mongolia aside 4-1 and Sri Lanka scored late in extra time to draw 2-2 before eliminating their hosts Cambodia in a penalty shootout. In World Cup qualifiers in the Asian section, the UAE came from behind to celebrate a 3-1 victory in Qatar and Bahrain stunned their Australian hosts 1-0, but were thumped 5-0 by Japan on their return home with doubles from Ayase Ueda and Hidemasa morita while Kuwait and Indonesia achieved 1-1 draws in Jordan and Saudi Arabia respectively and South Korea, who were held to a goalless draw by the travelling Palestinians, bounced back with a 3-1 win in Oman.

In South America Venezuela were taken apart 4-0 in Bolivia who also triumphed 2-1 in Chile while Paraguay drew 0-0 in Uruguay before beating Brazil 1-0 at home and Colombia overcame world champions Argentina 2-1 in front of their jubilant home crowd.

In a World Cup qualifier in the Oceania section, Tonga enjoyed a 3-1 win over Cook Islands in Samoa.