Senegal posted a painful 1-0 win over Egypt to book their place in the Africa Cup of Nations finals, now to be held in Equatorial Guinea in January next year.

It took an effort from New African Soccer-named English Premier League’s African Player of the Month of August, Stoke City’s Mame Biram Diouf, to get the Teranga Lions into the pot for the draw of the Africa flagship tournament in Malabo on December 3.

That 1-0 victory in Cairo though, meant that record seven-time winners Egypt will miss their third consecutive finals in 2015. The Pharaohs have not qualified for the competition since they won a record third consecutive trophy in Angola in 2010.

Senegal is joined from their group by Tunisia, which recorded a 0-0 draw away to Botswana on Friday.

There were emotional scenes in Durban, South Africa as their national team posted a 2-1 win over Sudan in a match that was heavy with emotion, sparked by the death of their captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa. Banana Bafana won to ensure that they finish top of group A, and many dedicated this triumph to the memory of the slain goalkeeper Meyiwa.

Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions also won, leaving it late to get a single goal victory over a stubborn DR Congo side, to qualify for Equatorial Guinea.

Burkina Faso, Gabon and Zambia with an impressive 1-0 win away to Mozambique make up the line-up of teams that qualified to join 100% team Algeria that already had qualified with two games to spare.

The stories of the day were from Congo and Uganda though; where the seemingly dead-and-buried Nigerian Super Eagles got a priceless 2-0 away win against the Claude le Roy tutored Congo, to put themselves back in the reckoning for qualification. And in Uganda, the Cranes overcame a star-studded Ghana team 1-0 to also give themselves a chance to qualify and be the lone representative of the East African region.


Weekend Results


Group A

South Africa 2 - 1 Sudan

Congo 0 -2 Nigeria

 

Group B

Malawi 2 - 0 Mali

Algeria 3 - 1 Ethiopia

 

Group C

Lesotho 0 - 1 Burkina Faso

Angola 0 - 0 Gabon

 

Group D

Sierra Leone 1 - 5 Ivory Coast

Cameroon 1 - 0 DR Congo

 

Group E

Uganda 1 - 0 Ghana

Togo 1 - 4 Guinea

 

Group F

Mozambique 0 - 1 Zambia

Cape Verde 3 - 1 Niger

 

Group G

Botswana 0 - 0 Tunisia

Egypt 0 - 1 Senegal

 

 

Wednesday fixtures

Group A

Nigeria v South Africa

Sudan v Congo

 

Group B

Ethiopia v Malawi

Mali v Algeria

 

Group C

Burkina Faso v Angola

Gabon v Lesotho

 

Group D

Ivory Coast v Cameroon

DR Congo v Sierra leone

 

Group E

Guinea v Uganda (to be played in Casablanca Morocco)

Ghana v Togo

 

Group F

Zambia v Cape Verde

Niger v Mozambique

 

Group G

Tunisia v Egypt

Senegal v Botswana