Matt Davies complete his previews of the weekend’s World Cup Qualifiers with a focus on the fixtures taking place today in Africa…
Zimbabwe v Mozambique
Nothing to play for in this one, with neither team impressing at all in this one. Egypt won this group months ago and both of these teams sit at the bottom of the group. Not much to say, a draw in the previous game seems like a repeat result. Draw.
Togo v Congo DR
What should have been the toughest group in qualification hasn’t been as tight as most expected. Primarily, this is down to Togo and their poor goal scoring record without Adebayor and poor decision making by playing an ineligible player in their only victory against Cameroon. Congo DR were highly fancied to go to Rio but haven’t taken advantage of mistakes by other teams having scored only two goals in this campaign. Away win.
Cameroon v Libya
The deciding match from Group I sees a Cameroon team struggling to replace an aging squad face a Libyan team riding a wave of emotion after the political struggles of the last few years, who have impressed in this campaign. A draw is enough for Cameroon to make it but I fancy one final push by Libya to make it to the playoffs. Away win.
Kenya v Namibia
Kenya have disappointed many by failing to challenge Nigeria at the top of the group this campaign and are bottom of their group. Wanyama’s move to Southampton has put a dampener on his career so far this season and he has failed to translate his previous form for his national team. Namibia are third in their group, and haven’t shown themselves as the whipping boys many expecting them to be, having kept it tight at the back throught qualification. Draw.
Benin v Rwanda
Rwanda started the campaign with a 4-0 loss to Algeria and never recovered, currently lying bottom of their group. Benin have finally got the best out of Stephane Sessegnon, but even the talismanic West Brom player hasn’t been able to drag them into a position where they could qualify, nor have the goals of Zamarak’s Omotoyossi. They should have enough to finish second though. Home win.
Sudan v Lesotho
The final game of this round (and the final preview!) sees two teams who have really struggled with the two better teams in their group. Both teams have terrible goal difference after big goal swings in defeats to Ghana, and Sudan’s only victory (against Zambia) was taken from them when they fielded an ineligible player. Home win.
More qualifiers, previews and more coming this week…
Thanks for sticking with me over the past three days. With more qualifiers taking place on Tuesday so I’ll be posting up an update on who’s impressed, who’s disappointed, and the games to watch out for next week, tomorrow. See you then!
