JOHANNESBURG: Senegal coach Aliou Cisse desires the September Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers postponed to permit the 5 international locations representing the continent on the World Cup to play pleasant matches.
Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia have certified for the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 Qatar event and the African sides have solely a Sept. 19-27 window and one week earlier than the World Cup kickoff to arrange.
The withdrawal of Zimbabwe from Group Ok means Morocco are free to play warmup video games in September, however the different 4 groups face two African qualifiers every.
Cameroon are scheduled to play Namibia, Ghana to satisfy Angola, Senegal to deal with Mozambique and Tunisia to face Libya residence and away.
Chatting with the media in Dakar after Senegal snatched a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Rwanda on Tuesday, Cisse known as on the Confederation of African Soccer (CAF) to delay the following two rounds of qualifying.
“The perfect factor (to) assist the 5 (African) picks which have certified (for the World Cup) is to cease the (qualifiers) in September,” stated the previous Paris Saint-Germain midfielder-cum-defender.
“(This is able to) make it possible to the international locations certified (for the World Cup) to do their preparations. I believe we will discover a resolution to postpone the (qualifiers) scheduled for September.”
The problem for CAF will likely be to seek out new dates in the event that they postpone the 44 September fixtures as there is just one different window, subsequent March, earlier than the June-July 2023 finals within the Ivory Coast.
CAF plan to stage matchdays 5 and 6 of Cup of Nations qualifying between March 20-28, with the finals set for June and July 2023.
What the Cairo-based physique could contemplate is canceling solely the eight September matches involving the World Cup qualifiers and asking them to play catch-up in the course of the World Cup window as soon as eradicated.
African pundits are extraordinarily pessimistic concerning the probabilities of the 5, giving solely Senegal, who face the Netherlands, Qatar and Ecuador in Group A, a practical probability of reaching the second spherical.
Tunisia are in Group D with defending champions France, Denmark and Australia or Peru and Morocco in Group F beside Belgium, Canada and Croatia.
Cameroon face Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland in Group G and Ghana meet Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea in Group H.
In the meantime, there have been six Cup of Nations qualifiers on Wednesday and fallen African giants Algeria took management of Group F after a powerful 2-0 victory in Tanzania.
A intelligent free-kick drill late within the first half culminated in center-back Ramy Bensebaini nodding the Desert Foxes forward.
Tanzania not often threatened to equalize earlier than substitute Mohamed Amoura sealed success with a thunderous close-range shot a minute from time.
Algeria boasted a 35-match unbeaten document earlier than the wheels got here off this 12 months in a Cup of Nations title protection and World Cup playoff.
After drawing with Sierra Leone within the African event, they fell to Equatorial Guinea and the Ivory Coast to make a shocking first-round exit having traveled to Cameroon as one of many title favorites.
Algeria then received away to Cameroon in a World Cup playoff solely to concede late in additional time at residence and lose on away objectives.
The win in Tanzania, coupled with second seeds Uganda draw 1-1 at residence to Niger, means the two-time African champions have a four-point lead after simply two rounds.
Congo Brazzaville put a four-goal Group G mauling in Mali behind them by edging 2021-2022 Cup of Nations giant-killers the Gambia 1-0 in Brazzaville by means of an Antoine Makoumbou objective.
