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2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Tournament details
Dates	23 March 2022 – 17 October 2023
Teams	52 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	142
Goals scored	348 (2.45 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Victor Osimhen (10 goals)
← 2021 2025 →

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, the 34th edition of the international men's football championship of Africa. A total of 24 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Ivory Coast, who qualified automatically as hosts.

Entrants

All 54 CAF member associations entered the competition. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 23 December 2021 with teams ranked 1st to 42nd receiving a bye to the qualifying group stage, while the teams ranked 43rd to 54th having to participate in the preliminary round.

The preliminary round draw took place on 21 January 2022, 16:30 WAT (UTC+1), in Douala, Cameroon.

Schedule

The schedule of the qualifying tournament was as follows.

Preliminary round

The twelve lowest-ranked teams were drawn into six ties to be played in home-and-away two-legged format. The six winners advanced to the group stage to join the 42 teams which entered directly.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Eritrea	awd.	Botswana	Canc.	Canc.
São Tomé and Príncipe	4–3	Mauritius	1–0	3–3
Djibouti	2–5	South Sudan	2–4	0–1
Seychelles	1–3	Lesotho	0–0	1–3
Somalia	1–5	Eswatini	0–3	1–2
Chad	2–3	Gambia	0–1	2–2

Group stage

Draw

The group stage draw took place on 19 April 2022 at 19:30 SAST (UTC+2) at SuperSport Broadcasting Studios in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each (from Group A to Group L), which consisted of the 42 teams which entered directly, in addition to the six winners of the preliminary round. The 48 national teams had previously been seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the March 2022 FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses). Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

The draw started with pot 4 and ended with pot 1; each team drawn was assigned into the first available group alphabetically (A–L) and within the group was placed in the position that corresponded to it according to its pot (i.e. position 1 for teams from pot 1, position 2 for teams from pot 2, position 3 for teams from pot 3 and position 4 for teams from pot 4).

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations hosts, Ivory Coast, participated in the qualifiers despite the team being guaranteed a spot in the finals, which meant only the best ranked team within their group apart from Ivory Coast qualified for the finals. The Ivory Coast matches and results counted in determining the qualification of the other teams from their group.

Kenya and Zimbabwe were included in the draw despite being temporarily suspended by FIFA from all international football activities. In order to avoid a potential situation where one group contained only two valid teams, the aforementioned sides could thus not be drawn in the same group. On 23 May 2022, CAF announced that both teams had been disqualified from the qualifiers as a result of their suspensions not being lifted by FIFA. Thus, their groups were composed of only three teams, with the group winners and runners-up qualifying to the finals.

The draw ceremony was conducted by the CAF Director of Competitions Samson Adamu, with assistance by former South Africa defender Lucas Radebe and former Ivory Coast striker Salomon Kalou.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 14):

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above was reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Drawing of lots

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Nigeria	6	5	0	1	22	4	+18	15	Final tournament		—	0–1	2–1	6–0
2	Guinea-Bissau	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	13			0–1	—	2–1	5–1
3	Sierra Leone	6	1	2	3	10	11	−1	5			2–3	2–2	—	2–2
4	São Tomé and Príncipe	6	0	1	5	3	26	−23	1			0–10	0–1	0–2	—

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Burkina Faso	6	3	2	1	8	5	+3	11	Final tournament		—	2–0	1–0	0–0
2	Cape Verde	6	3	1	2	8	6	+2	10			3–1	—	2–0	0–0
3	Togo	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			1–1	3–2	—	2–2
4	Eswatini	6	0	3	3	3	8	−5	3			1–3	0–1	0–2	—

Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cameroon	4	2	1	1	6	3	+3	7	Final tournament		—	1–1	3–0	Canc.
2	Namibia	4	1	2	1	6	6	0	5			2–1	—	1–1	Canc.
3	Burundi	4	1	1	2	4	7	−3	4			0–1	3–2	—	Canc.
4	Kenya	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disqualified		Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	—

Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Egypt	6	5	0	1	10	3	+7	15	Final tournament		—	1–0	2–0	1–0
2	Guinea	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2	10			1–2	—	1–0	2–0
3	Malawi	6	1	2	3	4	10	−6	5			0–4	2–2	—	2–1
4	Ethiopia	6	1	1	4	5	8	−3	4			2–0	2–3	0–0	—

Group E

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ghana	6	3	3	0	8	3	+5	12	Final tournament		—	1–0	2–1	3–0
2	Angola	6	2	3	1	6	5	+1	9			1–1	—	2–1	0–0
3	Central African Republic	6	2	1	3	9	7	+2	7			1–1	1–2	—	2–0
4	Madagascar	6	0	3	3	1	9	−8	3			0–0	1–1	0–3	—

Group F

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Algeria	6	5	1	0	9	2	+7	16	Final tournament		—	0–0	2–0	2–1
2	Tanzania	6	2	2	2	3	4	−1	8			0–2	—	0–1	1–0
3	Uganda	6	2	1	3	5	6	−1	7			1–2	0–1	—	1–1
4	Niger	6	0	2	4	3	8	−5	2			0–1	1–1	0–2	—

Group G

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mali	6	5	0	1	15	2	+13	15	Final tournament		—	2–0	4–0	4–0
2	Gambia	6	3	1	2	7	7	0	10			1–0	—	2–2	1–0
3	Congo	6	2	1	3	5	10	−5	7			0–2	1–0	—	1–2
4	South Sudan	6	1	0	5	5	13	−8	3			1–3	2–3	0–1	—

Group H

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6	13	Final tournament		—	3–0	2–1	3–1
2	Ivory Coast	6	4	1	1	9	5	+4	13			3–1	—	3–1	1–0
3	Comoros	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	7			1–1	0–2	—	2–0
4	Lesotho	6	0	1	5	1	9	−8	1			0–2	0–0	0–1	—

1. ^ Head-to-head goal difference: Zambia 1, Ivory Coast –1.

Group I

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	DR Congo	6	4	0	2	11	4	+7	12	Final tournament		—	3–1	0–1	2–0
2	Mauritania	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2	10			0–3	—	2–1	3–0
3	Gabon	6	2	1	3	3	5	−2	7			0–2	0–0	—	1–0
4	Sudan	6	2	0	4	3	10	−7	6			2–1	0–3	1–0	—

1. CAF awarded DR Congo a 3–0 win as a result of Mauritania fielding an ineligible player, Khadim Diaw, after the match had ended in a 1–1 draw. Diaw failed to follow the proper procedure for switching national teams after previously representing Senegal during the 2020 African Nations Championship qualification.

Group J

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tunisia	6	4	1	1	11	1	+10	13	Final tournament		—	4–0	3–0	3–0
2	Equatorial Guinea	6	4	1	1	9	7	+2	13			1–0	—	2–0	2–0
3	Botswana	6	1	1	4	3	9	−6	4			0–0	2–3	—	1–0
4	Libya	6	1	1	4	2	8	−6	4			0–1	1–1	1–0	—

Group K

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	4	3	0	1	8	3	+5	9	Final tournament		—	2–1	3–0	Canc.
2	South Africa	4	2	1	1	7	6	+1	7			2–1	—	2–2	Canc.
3	Liberia	4	0	1	3	3	9	−6	1			0–2	1–2	—	Canc.
4	Zimbabwe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disqualified		Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	—

Group L

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Senegal	6	4	2	0	12	4	+8	14	Final tournament		—	5–1	3–1	1–1
2	Mozambique	6	3	1	2	8	9	−1	10			0–1	—	3–2	1–1
3	Benin	6	1	2	3	8	9	−1	5			1–1	0–1	—	1–1
4	Rwanda	6	0	3	3	3	9	−6	3			0–1	0–2	0–3	—

1. CAF awarded Benin a 3–0 win as a result of Rwanda fielding an ineligible player, Kevin Muhire, after the match had ended in a 1–1 draw. Muhire failed to serve a one-game ban after receiving two yellow cards in the qualifying competition.

Goalscorers

There were 348 goals scored in 142 matches, for an average of 2.45 goals per match.

10 goals

• Victor Osimhen

5 goals

• Louis Mafouta
• Sadio Mané
• Youssef Msakni
• Patson Daka

4 goals

• Dango Ouattara
• Peter Shalulile
• Luís Leal

3 goals

• Mohamed Amoura
• Sabelo Ndzinisa
• Mohammed Kudus
• Zinho Gano
• Jorginho
• Ibrahim Sangaré
• Kamory Doumbia
• Aboubakar Kamara
• Lyle Foster
• Tito Okello
• Kévin Denkey

2 goals

• Gelson Dala
• Jodel Dossou
• Steve Mounié
• Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana
• Vincent Aboubakar
• Youssouf M'Changama
• Benjaloud Youssouf
• Cédric Bakambu
• Fiston Mayele
• Omar Marmoush
• Mostafa Mohamed
• Mohamed Salah
• Federico Bikoro
• Emilio Nsue
• Fanelo Mamba
• Assan Ceesay
• Ablie Jallow
• Osman Bukari
• Naby Keïta
• Christian Kouamé
• Katleho Makateng
• Gabadinho Mhango
• Mohamed Camara
• Dorgeles Nene
• Ibrahima Koné
• El Bilal Touré
• Hemeya Tanjy
• Ayoub El Kaabi
• Youssef En-Nesyri
• Geny Catamo
• Clésio
• Daniel Sosah
• Ademola Lookman
• Terem Moffi
• Moses Simon
• Ricardo Cardoso
• Boulaye Dia
• Mustapha Bundu
• Augustus Kargbo
• Zakhele Lepasa
• Peter Chol
• Saimon Msuva
• Kodjo Laba
• Euloge Placca
• Haythem Jouini
• Lameck Banda
• Kings Kangwa

1 goal

• Youcef Belaïli
• Ramy Bensebaini
• Baghdad Bounedjah
• Riyad Mahrez
• Aïssa Mandi
• Kialonda Gaspar
• Lucas João
• Felício Milson
• M'Bala Nzola
• Abdoul Rachid Moumini
• Junior Olaitan
• Mbatshi Elias
• Gape Mohutsiwa
• Kabelo Seakanyeng
• Stephane Aziz Ki
• Hassane Bandé
• Issoufou Dayo
• Abdoul Tapsoba
• Abedi Bigirimana
• Hussein Shabani
• Olivier Kemen
• Bryan Mbeumo
• Karl Toko Ekambi
• Christopher Wooh
• Bebé
• Gilson Benchimol
• Clé
• João Paulo Fernandes
• Ryan Mendes
• Jamiro Monteiro
• Kevin Pina
• Júlio Tavares
• Geoffrey Kondogbia
• Karl Namnganda
• Isaac Ngoma
• Samuel Nlend
• Ahmat Abderamane
• Ezechiel N'Douassel
• El Fardou Ben Nabouhane
• Ibroihim Djoudja
• Thievy Bifouma
• Gabriel Charpentier
• Silvère Ganvoula
• Antoine Makoumbou
• Gaius Makouta
• Samuel Akinbinu
• Ibrahim Aden Warsama
• Jonathan Bolingi
• Théo Bongonda
• Gaël Kakuta
• Arthur Masuaku
• Aaron Tshibola
• Mostafa Fathi
• Tarek Hamed
• Trézéguet
• Zizo
• Saúl Coco
• José Elo
• Iban Salvador
• Bonginkosi Dlamini
• Sandile Gamedze
• Siboniso Ngwenya
• Shimelis Bekele
• Dawa Hotessa
• Kitika Jemma
• Kenean Markneh
• Abubeker Nassir
• Shavy Babicka
• Didier Ndong
• Lloyd Palun
• Muhammed Badamosi
• Hamza Barry
• Omar Colley
• Yankuba Minteh
• Bubacarr Trawally
• Felix Afena-Gyan
• Ernest Nuamah
• Antoine Semenyo
• Mohamed Bayo
• Aguibou Camara
• Morgan Guilavogui
• Serhou Guirassy
• François Kamano
• Ilaix Moriba
• Saïdou Sow
• Mama Baldé
• Zidane Banjaqui
• Franculino Djú
• Nito Gomes
• Alfa Semedo
• Serge Aurier
• Sébastien Haller
• Franck Kessié
• Jean-Philippe Krasso
• Tshwarelo Bereng
• Sera Motebang
• William Jebor
• Mohammed Sangare
• Tonia Tisdell
• Saleh Al Taher
• Husain Taqtaq
• Njiva Rakotoharimalala
• Lawrence Chaziya
• Robert Saizi
• Kalifa Coulibaly
• Aliou Dieng
• Sékou Koïta
• Adama Malouda Traoré
• Aly Abeid
• Nouh Mohamed El Abd
• Hassan Houbeib
• Abdallahi Mahmoud
• Mouhamed Soueid
• Kévin Bru
• Dylan Collard
• Ashley Nazira
• Amine Adli
• Fayçal Fajr
• Amine Harit
• Hakim Ziyech
• Guima
• Stanley Ratifo
• Gildo Vilanculos
• Witi
• Absalom Iimbondi
• Wendell Rudath
• Amadou Sabo
• Taiwo Awoniyi
• Samuel Chukwueze
• Emmanuel Dennis
• Peter Etebo
• Kelechi Iheanacho
• Alex Iwobi
• Thierry Manzi
• Gilbert Mugisha
• Blaise Nishimwe
• Olivier Niyonzima
• Eba Viegas
• Mamadou Camara
• Habib Diallo
• Iliman Ndiaye
• Youssouf Sabaly
• Abdoulaye Seck
• Jean-Yves Perry Ernesta
• Amadou Bakayoko
• Musa Noah Kamara
• Abu Komeh
• Alhassan Koroma
• Jonathan Morsay
• Abubakarr Samura
• Sak Hassan
• Mihlali Mayambela
• Chol Daniel
• William Gama
• Rashid Toha
• Valentino Yuel
• Mohamed Abdelrahman
• Waleed Al-Shoala
• Muhamed Kome
• George Mpole
• Abdou Ouattara
• Seifeddine Jaziri
• Ali Maâloul
• Naïm Sliti
• Fahad Bayo
• Milton Karisa
• Aziz Kayondo
• Rogers Mato
• Joseph Ochaya
• Enock Mwepu
• Fashion Sakala

1 own goal

• Lebogang Ditsele (against Equatorial Guinea)
• Alford Velaphi (against Tunisia)
• Serge Aurier (against Zambia)
• Mohammed Al Tuhami (against Equatorial Guinea)
• Boubakar Kouyaté (against South Sudan)
• Munir Mohamedi (against South Africa)
• Rahim Alhassane (against Algeria)
• Rehan Angier (against Gambia)

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in Africa Cup of Nations
Ivory Coast	Hosts / Group H runners-up	30 January 2019	24 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Morocco	Group K winners	24 March 2023	18 (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Algeria	Group F winners	27 March 2023	19 (1968, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
South Africa	Group K runners-up	28 March 2023	10 (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2019)
Senegal	Group L winners	28 March 2023	16 (1965, 1968, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Burkina Faso	Group B winners	28 March 2023	12 (1978, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021)
Tunisia	Group J winners	28 March 2023	20 (1962, 1963, 1965, 1978, 1982, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Egypt	Group D winners	14 June 2023	25 (1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Zambia	Group H winners	17 June 2023	17 (1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015)
Equatorial Guinea	Group J runners-up	17 June 2023	3 (2012, 2015, 2021)
Nigeria	Group A winners	18 June 2023	19 (1963, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2021)
Guinea-Bissau	Group A runners-up	18 June 2023	3 (2017, 2019, 2021)
Cape Verde	Group B runners-up	18 June 2023	3 (2013, 2015, 2021)
Mali	Group G winners	18 June 2023	12 (1972, 1994, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Guinea	Group D runners-up	20 June 2023	13 (1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021)
Ghana	Group E winners	7 September 2023	23 (1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Angola	Group E runners-up	7 September 2023	8 (1996, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2019)
Tanzania	Group F runners-up	7 September 2023	2 (1980, 2019)
Mozambique	Group L runners-up	9 September 2023	4 (1986, 1996, 1998, 2010)
DR Congo	Group I winners	9 September 2023	19 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)
Mauritania	Group I runners-up	9 September 2023	2 (2019, 2021)
Gambia	Group G runners-up	10 September 2023	1 (2021)
Cameroon	Group C winners	12 September 2023	20 (1970, 1972, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Namibia	Group C runners-up	12 September 2023	3 (1998, 2008, 2019)

Bold indicates champions for that year. Italics indicates hosts for that year.

References

1. "Road to Cote d'Ivoire 2023 kicks off with Preliminary Draw conducted". CAFonline.com. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
2. "Draw for 2023 Africa Cup of Nations". CAFOnline.com. 8 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
3. "Men's Ranking". FIFA.com. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
4. "Road to Cote d'Ivoire 2023 kicks off with Preliminary Draw conducted". CAFOnline.com. 21 January 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
5. "CAF announces AFCON23, Women's AFCON and CHAN draw dates" (Press release). Confederation of African Football. 8 April 2022.
6. ^ "Tuesday night's TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d'Ivoire group stages draw procedure explained". Confederation of African Football. 18 April 2022.
7. "Men's Ranking". FIFA. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
8. "CAF Media Statement on Zimbabwe and Kenya AFCON 2023 qualifiers". CAFonline.com (Press release). 23 May 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
9. "Radebe, Kalou named 2023 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying Draw Assistants". CAFOnline.com. 14 April 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
10. "CAN 2023 (Q): les Léopards battent la Mauritanie par forfait et passent premiers du groupe" [CAN 2023 (Q): the Leopards beat Mauritania by default and go first in the group]. Foot RDC (in French). 11 July 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
11. "AFCON 2023 Qualifiers: Rwanda loses after Benin's appeal". Sport News Africa. 17 May 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.

• 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
• Africa Cup of Nations qualification
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