African champions Senegal qualify for 2023 AFCON alongside South Africa, Tunisia, Burkina Faso

* Coach Aliou Cisse is further quoted as saying he will use the last two matches of the qualifiers to rotate the squad

* And give more players a chance to prove their worth ahead of their defence title in Côte d’Ivoire

Maravi Express

Senegal beat Mozambique 6-1 on aggregate on the back-to-back 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) — 5-1 at home and 1-0 away in Maputo — to qualify for finals in Côte d’Ivoire, joined by South Africa, Tunisia and Burkina Faso.

A report on CAFonline says the Mambas of Mozambique had shown an improved performance from the 1-5 thrashing in the first leg but still the Lions of Teranga were stronger than them.

Senegal head coach Aliou Cisse is quoted as lavishing full of praise for his players especially after picking victory in a difficult hunting ground, saying: “Not many teams have come here and won. Senegal has often left unhappy from Mozambique but today, we are really happy with our performance.

“We are very satisfied. We had come to seek for qualification and we achieved it. I congratulate my players. Their mental strength is magnificent.”

Cisse is further quoted as saying he will use the last two matches of the qualifiers to rotate the squad and give more players a chance to prove their worth ahead of their defence title in Côte d’Ivoire as they now have 12 points from four straight wins.

Mozambique — a Confederation of Southern African Football (COSAFA) side — the remain second on four points, two ahead of Rwanda who faced Benin on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos had initially told the South African public to ‘kill him’ if the team failed to make it to the 2023 finals and now, he can breathe easy after they made it to the tournament with a 2-1 win over Liberia in Monrovia.

Broos is already planning for the competition in Côte d’Ivoire and told the media after their 2-2 draw in the first leg that he should be ‘killed’ if the team doesn’t make it past the group phases.

“I said that people should kill me if we do not go to the AFCON and now that we have made it, they should kill me if we do not go through the group phases of the tournament,” Broos is quarter as saying by CAFonline.

He believes that South Africa should be a side regularly competing at the continent’s top tournament, saying: “This is a country that normally should be at every AFCON and I did not understand why we couldn’t qualify in the last years.

“This win was important for us because we have a new team with young players and we did it. We can only progress over the next 10 months with good preparations against opponents from whom we can learn something,” he said.

The report added that South Africa had to hold on for dear life in the last few minutes of the game with two goal-line clearances in the last five minutes as Liberia threatened to pull another great comeback.

In the first leg, they came from two goals behind to force a 2-2 draw in Johannesburg and in Monrovia, the South Africans took the lead in 19th minute lead but the hard fighting Liberians drew level 10 minutes to halftime.

In the second half, under pressure South Africa tidied up their act and they got back into the lead nine minutes after the restart and despite some nervous moments, the COSAFA side held on for the win.

Tunisia confirmed their place after a 1-0 victory over Libya in Benghazi on Tuesday night that moved them to 10 points top of Group J, one ahead of second placed Equatorial Guinea and seven ahead of the Libyans.

Tunisia achieved their qualification on an unbeaten record and without conceding a goal — a statistic that excited head coach Jalel Kadri, according to CAFonline.

“We secured qualification to the African Cup of Nations, and Tunisia is the only team in the qualifiers that did not concede any goal so far. Accordingly it confirmed our technical value of our defence, and a great work awaits us in the attack to score,” he said.

Another COSAFA side, Namibia are on the verge of sealing a place after beating giants Cameroon 2-1 — stopping the five-time champions in their Group C qualifier at the Dobsonville Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The victory sent Namibia to the top of the group with five points, one more than second-placed Indomitable Lions in the three-team group.

Burundi, the other team in the group, have played two matches and have one point, giving Namibia a good chance of qualifying for Africa’s flagship football competition.

Burkina Faso, semifinalists of the 2021 finals in Cameroun, picked a point in a 1-1 draw away to Togo that earned them a total of 10 points to top their Group B, three ahead of second-placed Cape Verde and 8 ahead of third-placed eSwatini with two rounds of matches to play.

In the other two earlier matches played Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde picked away wins to improve their chances of qualification in games that saw Equatorial Guinea humbling COSAFA side Botswana 3-2 in a Group J.

Cape Verde also picked a 1-0 away win against Eswatini with Ryan Mendes scoring the lone goal in the Group B match played at the Mbombela Stadium, Mbombela in South Africa.

The win takes Cape Verde to second place with seven points behind Burkina Faso who have nine points and are yet to face bottom placed Togo.

Elsewhere in Nouakchott, 10-man DR Congo held on for a point away from home as they played to a 1-1 draw with hosts Mauritania — leaving Group I wide open with only three points separating leaders Gabon (7) and bottom side Congo (4) with two rounds of matches left.

Mauritania are third in the group with five points and there will be all to play for heading to the final cluster of fixtures in June.

Uganda coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic told CAFonline that he made a risk going out with a young squad against Tanzania, and coming off with a 1-0 win that sees them remain in contention.

Two substitutes combined for Uganda’s winning goal in the 91st minute, Faruk Miya placing the ball on a platter for Rodgers Mato to score and hand the Cranes three vital points on enemy territory.

“This victory means a lot to the Uganda Cranes,” Micho is quoted as saying. “This is a team in transition because we have had so many players retiring.

“We started this game with five players who played the final of the Under-20 AFCON in Mauritania in 2021 and a few senior players. We came here to risk and we played against a very experienced team. We risked and in the end, we got something.”

He added that it was sweet victory for Uganda who lost by the same margin when the two sides met in the first leg last week, while also bearing in mind Tanzania’s Simba just recently completed a home and away sweep of Ugandan champions Vipers SC in the CAF Champions League.

The tactician now hopes that their ‘spiritual home ground’, the Namboole Stadium in the capital Kampala can be ready in time for June when they take on group leaders Algeria in a do or die clash.

“It is a different feeling when you play at home compared to a neutral ground. We have six points to fight for and we will give everything to try and qualify,” Micho said after the victory took Uganda to four points in Group F, same as Tanzania while Niger are bottom with two points.

Elsewhere, The Gambia put their hopes back on track with a hard earned 1-0 win over Mali in a match played in Casablanca, Morocco.

The Scorpions made amends for their 2-0 loss to the Malians last weekend, as they ensured they remained in contention with two matches left. It was also Mali’s first loss in the qualifiers, who remain top of the group with nine points.

The win sees Gambia move to six points in group G, only separated from second placed Congo by goal difference.