Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Ethiopia have confirmed their places at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon in 2022 as the final round of qualification matches wrapped up.
Guinea-Bissau qualified for their third successive finals thanks to a convincing 3-0 win over Congo in Bissau’s 24 September stadium.
Piqueti scored the first for Guinea-Bissau in injury time at the end of the first half. Congo knew they could qualify only if they won, but instead their hopes were completely dashed when Alexandre Mendy netted a second on 73 minutes.
Jorginho rounded things off with the third for Guinea-Bissau on 80 minutes.
Meanwhile Mauritania won 1-0 in the Central African Republic in Banjul in Group E, which means that Burundi cannot catch them whatever happens in their game against Morocco later.
And a 0-0 draw between Madagascar and Niger meant that Ethiopia went through from Group K, despite having been 3-1 down to Ivory Coast when the match was abandoned on 80 minutes after referee Charles Bulu collapsed on the pitch.
Bulu was immediately taken to hospital after receiving treatment.
Bulu had replaced the original referee for the game, who had not arrived for the kick-off. The appointment replacement for Bulu turned out to be Ivorian himself, and therefore could not take over, and the game was abandoned.
Regardless, Madagascar’s failure to beat bottom-placed Niger means Ethiopia will attend their first African Nations Cup finals since 2013.
Elsewhere, goals from Victor Osimhen, Oghenekaro Etebo and Paul Onuachu helped Nigeria coast to a 3-0 win over Lesotho.
And in Group I, a late equaliser for Senegal prevented Eswatini from wrapping up their campaign with a surprise win, the game finishing 1-1.
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