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.

Underdogs end year on a high

The final six weeks of the year produced some remarkable results at the lower end of the rankings. The lowest ranked nation, American Samoa, captured the headlines with their first ever win, beating Tonga 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier played in neighbouring Samoa and proved that their victory was no fluke by earning a 1-1 draw against the Cook Islands 2 days later at the same venue. Even the 1-0 defeat to hosts Samoa which denied them passage to the next round was a creditable result for the world minnows. Tonga bounced back from their embarrassing loss to draw 1-1 with tournament hosts Samoa and gain a 2-1 victory over the Cook Islands.

Playing in the South Asian Football Federation Cup, Afghanistan were another team to punch above their weight drawing 1-1 with hosts India and surprising Sri Lanka 3-1 on the way to the final. Nepal’s 1-0 win over Bangladesh was also noteworthy. Bahrain had a mixed month, losing a home friendly 1-0 to Palestine before brushing Iraq aside 3-0 on their way to winning the Pan Arab Games in Qatar.