CAPE TOWN: Heavy­weight contenders in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers struggled on Monday with Ghana held to a draw while Morocco and Senegal scraped narrow wins over unfancied opposition.

But for Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, victories continued their positive start to the campaign which kicked off last week.

Ghana gave away a late goal as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Niger while Senegal needed a penalty to edge Burundi 1-0.

Morocco left it late to beat Lesotho with Real Madrid attacker Brahim Diaz scoring a superb individual effort in stoppage time for a 1-0 win in Agadir.

Morocco will host the next finals but are still taking part in the preliminaries despite being guaranteed a place in the 24-team tournament.

They made nine changes from Friday’s 4-1 win over Gabon for their second game in Group ‘B’, which was played in Agadir because Lesotho do not have a stadium passed fit for use in international football and ceded home advantage.

Defenders scored both goals in the Group ‘F’ clash in Moroccan city Berkane with Alidu Seidu putting Ghana ahead on 44 minutes and Oumar Sako equalising after 81 minutes.

Ghana have one point in Group ‘F’ after losing at home last week to Angola, who are top after Randy Nteka grabbed the winner nine minutes from time to beat Sudan 2-1 in Luanda.

Former champions Senegal made a disappointing debut last week, conceding an added-time goal to be held 1-1 at home by Burkina Faso.

Like Ghana, they were desperate for maximum points from their second Group ‘L’ outing, and achieved that goal by edging brave Burundi through a 71st-minute penalty converted by Ismaila Sarr.

DR Congo have won two out of two in Group ‘H’ after a 2-0 victory away to Ethiopia in a match hosted in Dar-es-Salaam. Theo Bongonda and Fiston Mayele netted the second half goals.

After exceeding expectations by drawing in South Africa last week, Uganda went top of Group ‘K’ by defeating Congo Braz­zaville 2-0 in Kampala via goals from Aziz Kay­ondo and Jude Ssemugabi.

Togo’s Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba scored four minutes into stoppage time as they came from 2-0 down to hold Equatorial Guinea to a 2-2 draw in Malabo in Group ‘E’.

Madagascar and the Comoros Islands drew their Group ‘A’ Indian Ocean derby 1-1, which was played in Tunisia because of the lack of a stadium on either island.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024