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The first round of CAF matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 7 to 17 October 2015.

Format

A total of 26 teams (teams ranked 28–53 in the CAF entrant list) played home-and-away over two legs. The 13 winners advanced to the second round.

Seeding

The draw for the first round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of July 2015 (shown in parentheses). The 26 teams are seeded into two pots:

• Pot 4 contained the teams ranked 1–13 (i.e., 28–40 in the CAF entrant list).
• Pot 5 contained the teams ranked 14–26 (i.e., 41–53 in the CAF entrant list).

Each tie contained a team from Pot 4 and a team from Pot 5, with the team from Pot 4 hosting the second leg.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the second round.

Matches

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Somalia	0–6	Niger	0–2	0–4
South Sudan	1–5	Mauritania	1–1	0–4
Gambia	2–3	Namibia	1–1	1–2
São Tomé and Príncipe	1–3	Ethiopia	1–0	0–3
Chad	2–2 (a)	Sierra Leone	1–0	1–2
Comoros	1–1 (a)	Lesotho	0–0	1–1
Djibouti	1–8	Swaziland	0–6	1–2
Eritrea	1–5	Botswana	0–2	1–3
Seychelles	0–3	Burundi	0–1	0–2
Liberia	4–2	Guinea-Bissau	1–1	3–1
Central African Republic	2–5	Madagascar	0–3	2–2
Mauritius	2–5	Kenya	2–5	0–0
Tanzania	2–1	Malawi	2–0	0–1

Somalia	0–2	Niger
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Maâzou 58', 61' (pen.)

Niger	4–0	Somalia
Cissé 13', 67' Maâzou 18', 32'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Niger won 6–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Cameroon.

South Sudan	1–1	Mauritania
Abui Pretino 5'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Bagili 3'

Mauritania	4–0	South Sudan
Ahmed 3' Bagili 61' M. Samba 84' Diakité 90+2'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Mauritania won 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Tunisia.

Gambia	1–1	Namibia
Jammeh 78'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Stephanus 61'

Namibia	2–1	Gambia
Stephanus 42' Somaeb 64'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Dibba 9'

Namibia won 3–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Guinea.

São Tomé and Príncipe	1–0	Ethiopia
Leal 86'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Ethiopia	3–0	São Tomé and Príncipe
Fekadu 1' Panom 47' (pen.) Lok 74'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Ethiopia won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Congo.

Chad	1–0	Sierra Leone
Djimrangar 47'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Sierra Leone	2–1	Chad
Kamara 70' Sesay 81'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Djimrangar 45+2'

2–2 on aggregate. Chad won on the away goals rule and advanced to the second round against Egypt.

Comoros	0–0	Lesotho
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Lesotho	1–1	Comoros
Seturumane 18'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	M'Changama 70'

1–1 on aggregate. Comoros won on the away goals rule and advanced to the second round against Ghana.

Djibouti	0–6	Swaziland
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Mkhontfo 45' Ndzinisa 61' S. Dlamini 74' Hlatjwako 76' T. Tsabedze 83' Lukhele 84'

Swaziland	2–1	Djibouti
Hlatjwako 7', 38'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Liban 21'

Swaziland won 8–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Nigeria.

Eritrea	0–2	Botswana
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Moyana 22' Mogorosi 64'

Botswana	3–1	Eritrea
Ngele 15', 79' Mogorosi 21'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Goitom 9'

Botswana won 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Mali.

Seychelles	0–1	Burundi
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Abdul Razak 15'

Burundi	2–0	Seychelles
Abdul Razak 71' (pen.), 81'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Burundi won 3–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against DR Congo.

Liberia	1–1	Guinea-Bissau
Jebor 35' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Baldé 62'

Guinea-Bissau	1–3	Liberia
Cassamá 45+2'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Jebor 9', 12', 90+5'

Liberia won 4–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Ivory Coast.

Central African Republic	0–3	Madagascar
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Rabeson 26' Rakotoharimalala 39' Paul 66'

Madagascar	2–2	Central African Republic
Ramanamahefa 18' Andrianantenaina 37'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Dagoulou 7' Malick 45+1'

Madagascar won 5–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Senegal.

Mauritius	2–5	Kenya
Sophie 67' (pen.) Bru 78'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)	Omolo 19', 82' Masika 23' Shakava 49' Olunga 87'

Kenya	0–0	Mauritius
	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Kenya won 5–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Cape Verde.

Tanzania	2–0	Malawi
Samatta 19' Ulimwengu 23'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Malawi	1–0	Tanzania
Banda 42'	Report (FIFA) Report (CAF)

Tanzania won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round against Algeria.

Goalscorers

There were 68 goals scored in 26 matches, for an average of 2.62 goals per match.

4 goals

• William Jebor
• Moussa Maâzou

3 goals

• Fiston Abdul Razak
• Sandile Hlatjwako

2 goals

• Joel Mogorosi
• Mogakolodi Ngele
• Léger Djimrangar
• Johanna Omolo
• Boubacar Bagili
• Willy Stephanus
• Mahamane Cissé

1 goal

• Galabgwe Moyana
• Eudes Dagoulou
• Demba Malick
• Mohamed M'Changama
• Mohamed Liban
• Henok Goitom
• Dawit Fekadu
• Ramkel Lok
• Gatoch Panom
• Pa Dibba
• Abdou Jammeh
• Amido Baldé
• Ibraime Cassamá
• Ayub Masika
• Michael Olunga
• Haron Shakava
• Tsepo Seturumane
• Abel Andrianantenaina
• Johann Paul
• Michael Rabeson
• Njiva Rakotoharimalala
• Falimery Ramanamahefa
• John Banda
• Cheikh Moulaye Ahmed
• Ismaël Diakité
• Moussa Samba
• Jonathan Bru
• Andy Sophie
• Hendrik Somaeb
• Luís Leal
• Alhaji Kamara
• Abdul Sesay
• Dominic Abui Pretino
• Saneliso Dlamini
• Mxolisi Lukhele
• Mthunzi Mkhontfo
• Sabelo Ndzinisa
• Tony Tsabedze
• Mbwana Samatta
• Thomas Ulimwengu

Notes

1. Somalia played their home leg in Ethiopia due to the Somali Civil War.
2. The South Sudan v Mauritania match was suspended after 10 minutes due to torrential rain, with the score 1–1 at the time. The match was resumed on 8 October 2015, 11:00 UTC+3.
3. Sierra Leone played their home leg in Nigeria due to the Western African Ebola virus epidemic.
4. Swaziland v Djibouti were to originally kick off on 13 October 2015, 19:00 UTC+3, but has been postponed to 17 October 2015, due to the inability of Djibouti's national team to arrive on time for the game.
5. After the Eritrea-Botswana match, ten Eritrea players refused to return home and sought asylum in Botswana.
6. The Central African Republic played their home leg in Madagascar due to the Central African Republic Civil War.

References

1. "Preliminary Draw procedures outlined". fifa.com. 9 July 2015. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
2. "FIFA World Cup Russia 2018: Procedure for the preliminary draw". CAF. 21 July 2015.
3. "Draw Procedures – African Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2015.
4. "Results of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 Preliminary Draw". CAF. 25 July 2015.
5. "FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – July 2015 (CAF)". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 9 July 2015. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
6. "World Cup debutants South Sudan draw". CAFonline.com. 8 October 2015.
7. "Swaziland, Djibouti W/Cup Qualifier Postponed". Complete Sports. 13 October 2015.
8. "Eritrean football players seek asylum in Botswana". BBC. 15 October 2015.
9. "Qualifying match between Central African Republic and Madagascar rescheduled". FIFA.com. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015.

External links

• Official FIFA World Cup website
  • Qualifiers – Africa: Round 1, FIFA.com
• 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Qualifiers, CAFonline.com

• 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)
• 2015 in African football