African Nations Championship: Egypt and Algeria fail to qualify
- Published
DR Congo have won the African Nations Championship twice in 2009 and 2016
Egypt and Algeria failed to qualify for the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals in Kenya after suffering aggregate defeats to Morocco and Libya respectively.
Morocco beat Egypt 3-1 in Rabat on Friday to win the tie 4-2 overall.
Libya held Algeria to a 1-1 draw in Sfax to go through to the finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory.
The match was played in Tunisia for security reasons.
African Nations Championship qualifiers - first leg scores in brackets | |
|---|---|
Friday: | Ivory Coast v Niger (1-2) |
Libya 1-1 Algeria (Libya win 3-2 on aggregate) | Mali v Mauritania (2-2) |
Morocco 3-1 Egypt (Morocco win 4-2 on aggregate) | Sudan v Ethiopia (1-1) |
Saturday: | Nigeria v Benin (0-1) |
Zambia v South Africa (2-2) | Sunday: |
Rwanda v Uganda (0-3) | Namibia v Comoros (1-2) |
DR Congo (holders) v Congo (0-0) | Ghana v Burkina Faso (2-2) |
Cameroon v Sao Tome e Principe (2-0) | Tuesday: |
Angola v Madagascar (0-0) | Guinea v Senegal (1-3) |
Aggregate winners qualify for finals in Kenya from 11 January to 2 February | |
The Moroccans clinched their place thanks to three second-half goals from Jawad Yamiq, Abderrahim Maqran and Badr Belhrouz.
Hamid Hossam scored a late consolation goal for Egypt, who were making their debut in the biennial competition for home-based footballers.
Algeria knew they had to score at least twice against Libya to survive having lost the first leg 2-1, and they took the lead midway through the first half when Sofiane Bendebka scored off a rebound.
But first-leg match-winner Muaid Ellafi levelled on the stroke of half-time and Libya held on to take the aggregate win.
Despite CHAN matches only featuring locally-based footballers the games have full international status and count toward the monthly Fifa rankings.