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September 9, 2013

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5 more teams reach Africa playoffs

Cape Verde Islands pulled off another big upset by landing a 2-0 victory in Tunisia to become one of five group winners to advance on Saturday to the last phase of Africa’s World Cup qualifying.

Burkina Faso and Ethiopia also came through suspense-filled matches to book their places and were accompanied by heavyweights Nigeria and Senegal.

The five countries now compete over the next two months in playoff games to determine Africa’s representatives for next year’s finals in Brazil.

Algeria, Egypt and Ivory Coast secured their berths back in June, Ghana did so on Friday and the last remaining place was to be decided yesterday when Cameroon was hosting Libya with the home team needing a draw and the visitors a win. The draw for the playoffs is in Cairo next Monday.

First-half goals from Platini and Heldon produced a giant-killing Group B result in Tunis for one of Africa’s smallest countries who began the year with a shock run to the Nations Cup quarterfinals. Tunisia had needed only a draw to go through.

Burkina Faso, surprise runner-up at the Nations Cup, completed a stunning comeback after losing its opening two games as it edged Congo to the top spot in Group E.

Congo had led by a point but was held 2-2 in Niger. It opened the door for the Burkinabe to overtake it and Prejuce Nakoulma scored nine minutes into the second half to earn a 1-0 home win over Gabon that took them to 12 points, one more than Congo.

Ethiopia was on its way out of the competition at halftime against the Central African Republic but rallied to win 2-1 in neutral Brazzaville and finish top of Group A.

Nigeria and Senegal needed home draws to win their respective groups but the former beat Malawi 2-0 in rainy Calabar to finish first in Group F while the latter edged Uganda 1-0 in a scrappy Group J match played in neutral Marrakech.




 

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