Action before the cups

 

Shortly before the continental cups kicked off in Europe, Oceania and the Americas, World Cup qualifiers were played in Africa, Asia and the Caribbeans.

In Africa Mauritania suffered a 2-0 defeat at home to Sudan while Ghana scored a last-minute 2-1 winner in Mali and South Sudan earned a 1-1 draw in Togo. Guinea, who had celebrated a 2-1 victory away to Algeria, lost 1-0 to a last-minute Mozambican penalty in Morocco while in South Africa, Lesotho put 2 past Zimbabwe and Rayan Raveloson scored both goals in Madagascar’s 2-1 win over Comoros. Vincent Aboubakar scored twice as Cameroon brushed their visitors from Cape Verde aside 4-1 while Benin upset Nigeria 2-1 in South Africa who were held to a goalless draw by Kenya in Malawi and Djibouti drew 1-1 with Ethiopia in Morocco.  

In Asia Yemen, who had held their Bahraini hosts to a goalless draw, needed a stoppage-time goal to draw 2-2 with Nepal in Saudi Arabia and there were draws in Saudi Arabia where Qatar fired blanks against Afghanistan and in Oman where Kyrgyzstan picked up a 1-1 draw while Syria lost 1-0 to North Korea in Laos.

In the Caribbeans, Trinidad and Tobago could only draw 2-2 at home to Grenada for whom Myles Hippolyte netted twice while El Salvador failed to find the net against their visitor from Puerto Rico and Cayman Islands celebrated a 1-0 win at home to Antigua and Barbuda.

Springboard to the summer

 

The early days of spring saw the last European teams qualify for the 2024 Euros through play-off matches while in Asia second-round matches were played in World Cup/Asian Cup qualifiers.

Iceland thumped Israel 4-1 in Hungary with a hat-trick from Albert Gudmundsson but lost out 2-1 to Ukraine having taken the lead in Poland. Georgia and Poland joined Ukraine after penalty-shootout triumphs at home to Greece and away to Wales respectively.

In Asia Afghanistan moved up in the rankings after upsetting their Indian host 2-1 having held them to a goalless draw in Saudi Arabia while South Korea who could only draw 1-1 at home to Thailand bounced back with 3 goals in Bangkok and Vietnam were shocked 3-0 by their Indonesian visitors. Myanmar earned a 1-1 draw at home to Syria while Oman scored twice in Malaysia and in the Nations League in the USA, Mexico defeated Panama 3-0 but lost 2-0 to their hosts in the final.

In the Africa Cup of Nations preliminary round in Morocco, Somalia drew 2-2 with Eswatini and Djibouti played a goalless match with Liberia while in a friendly tournament in Malawi, Kenya humbled their hosts with 4 unanswered goals. In a World Cup qualifier Anguilla knocked hosts the Turks and Caicos Islands out in a penalty shootout while in a friendly match Germany silenced France 2-0 in Lyon.