JOHANNESBURG: Alg­e­ria, Egypt and Morocco all moved closer to World Cup qualification with home success on Tuesday but South Africa face being docked points after fielding an ineligible player.

South Africa opened up a five-point lead at the top of Group ‘C’ of the African qualifiers after a 2-0 away win over Benin, while their closest rivals slipped up.

But their victory came only hours after media revelations they could lose the points from last Friday’s home win over Lesotho because they fielded Teboho Mokoena when he should have been suspended after collecting two cautions in earlier qualifying matches.

Midfielder Mokoena was withdrawn from the South Africa side for Tuesday’s victory over Benin in Abidjan amid a stony silence from officials.

Previous African qualifying campaigns have seen countries who fielded an ineligible player docked the points from the match.

But with Nigeria giving up a last-gasp equaliser at home to Zimbabwe on Tuesday, South Africa might still qualify.

Nigeria led through Victor Osimhen’s 74th-minute diving header in Uyo but substitute Tawanda Chirewa dribbled through the home defence to score a stoppage-time goal that gave Zimbabwe a 1-1 draw.

Nigeria trail South Afr­ica by six points with four matches to play with Benin and Rwanda five behind the leaders. Rwanda were held 1-1 at home by Lesotho.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Amoura’s treble helped Algeria rout Mozambique 5-1 in a key Group ‘G’ clash in Tizi Ouzou and opened up a three-point lead.

Elsewhere, Ahmed Zizo’s goal on the stroke of halftime gave Egypt a 1-0 home win over Sierra Leone in Cairo and a five-point adva­ntage in Group ‘A’, while Morocco kept up their 100% record in Group ‘E’ by beating Tanzania 2-0 in Oudja.

Morocco’s Nayef Aguerd opened the scoring in the second half, quickly followed by a second from the penalty spot converted by Brahim Diaz.

In Group ‘D’, Dailon Livramento scored a double as the tiny Cape Verde Islands stunned Angola 2-1 away and took over at the top of group, one point ahead of Cameroon who won 3-1 at home over Libya with two goals from skipper Vincent Aboubakar and one from Bryan Mbeumo.

The Democratic Repu­blic of Congo triumphed 2-0 away in Mauritania where midfielder Charles Pickel scored early and substitute Fiston Mayele added a late second for a victory that put them top of Group ‘B’.

They are one point ahead of Senegal, who were 2-0 victors at home over Togo.

Africa’s qualifiers will resume in September with two more rounds of matches and conclude in October with another double set of games.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2025