2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

The African section of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as the qualifies of the 2014 FIFA World Cup saw 52 teams from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who competing for 5 spots of the 32 teams in the finals.

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

Tournament details
Dates	11 November 2011 – 19 November 2013
Teams	52 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	152
Goals scored	389 (2.56 per match)
Attendance	2,887,430 (18,996 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mohamed Aboutrika Mohamed Salah Asamoah Gyan (5 Goals)
← 2010 2018 →

Format

Fifty-two out of the 53 national associations affiliated to CAF entered the qualifying to determine the continent's five slots for the next World Cup.^[1]

The proposed format, announced on 16 May 2011, began in November 2011 with the first round of 12 two-legged knock-out ties. The ties, involving the 24 lowest-ranked teams according to FIFA World Rankings, were drawn in Brazil on 30 July 2011.

The 12 winners joined the remaining 28 CAF entrants in the second round, which consists of 10 groups of 4. The winners of each group – held between June 2012 and September 2013 – advanced to the third round of 5 two-legged knock-out ties. The 5 winners of these ties – held in October and November 2013 – advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.

Entrants

The July 2011 FIFA Ranking were used to seed the teams for the first two rounds, both of which were drawn in Brazil on 30 July 2011.^[2] (World rankings shown in brackets)^[3]

Bye to second round (ranked 1st to 28th)

Competing in first round (ranked 29th to 52nd)

Ivory Coast (14)  Egypt (34)  Ghana (36)  Burkina Faso (39)  Nigeria (43)  Senegal (46)  South Africa (49)  Cameroon (50)  Algeria (52)  Tunisia (55)  Gabon (60)  Libya (63)  Morocco (63)  Guinea (68)  Botswana (71)  Malawi (72)  Zambia (74)  Uganda (76)  Mali (77)  Cape Verde (82)  Benin (86)  Zimbabwe (86)  Central African Republic (89)  Sierra Leone (93)  Sudan (97)  Niger (98)  Angola (100)  Gambia (102)

Mozambique (103)  DR Congo (123)  Togo (123)  Liberia (125)  Tanzania (127)  Congo (129)  Kenya (130)  Rwanda (134)  Ethiopia (139)  Namibia (140)  Burundi (143)  Madagascar (149)  Guinea-Bissau (151)  Equatorial Guinea (155)  Chad (158)  Swaziland (169)  Comoros (175)  Lesotho (184)  Eritrea (188)  Somalia (191)  Djibouti (194)  Mauritius (195)  Seychelles (199)  São Tomé and Príncipe (unranked)

Notes

•  Mauritania did not participate in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.^[4]

First round

Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF first round

The first round consisted of 12 home-and-away ties, featured the 24 lowest ranked teams in Africa. The ties were drawn at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The winners of these series proceeded to the second round.

Seeding

The July 2011 FIFA Ranking was used to seed the teams.

Pot 1	Pot 2
Mozambique  DR Congo  Togo  Liberia  Tanzania  Congo  Kenya  Rwanda  Ethiopia  Namibia  Burundi  Madagascar	Guinea-Bissau  Equatorial Guinea  Chad  Swaziland  Comoros  Lesotho  Eritrea  Somalia  Djibouti  Mauritius  Seychelles  São Tomé and Príncipe

Matches

The first legs were scheduled for 11–12 November 2011, with the second legs on 15–16 November 2011.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Seychelles	0–7	Kenya	0–3	0–4
Guinea-Bissau	1–2	Togo	1–1	0–1
Djibouti	0–8	Namibia	0–4	0–4
Mauritius	w/o	Liberia	—	—
Comoros	1–5	Mozambique	0–1	1–4
Equatorial Guinea	3–2	Madagascar	2–0	1–2
Somalia	0–5	Ethiopia	0–0	0–5
Lesotho	3–2	Burundi	1–0	2–2
Eritrea	2–4	Rwanda	1–1	1–3
Swaziland	2–8	DR Congo	1–3	1–5
São Tomé and Príncipe	1–6	Congo	0–5	1–1
Chad	2–2 (a)	Tanzania	1–2	1–0

• Note: Mauritius withdrew from the tournament on 31 October 2011.^[5] Liberia automatically advanced to the second round.

Second round

Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF second round

The second round saw the top 28 ranked CAF teams joined by the 12 winners from the first round. These teams were drawn into ten groups of four teams at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The matches were played from 1 June 2012 to 7 September 2013. The top team from each group advanced to the third round.

Seeding

The July 2011 FIFA Ranking was used to seed the teams.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Ivory Coast  Egypt  Ghana  Burkina Faso  Nigeria  Senegal  South Africa  Cameroon  Algeria  Tunisia	Gabon  Libya  Morocco  Guinea  Botswana  Malawi  Zambia  Uganda  Mali  Cape Verde	Benin  Zimbabwe  Central African Republic  Sierra Leone  Sudan  Niger  Gambia  Angola  Kenya†  Togo†	Namibia†  Liberia†  Mozambique†  Equatorial Guinea†  Ethiopia†  Lesotho†  Rwanda†  DR Congo†  Congo†  Tanzania†

^† First round winners whose identity was not known at the time of the draw

Groups

Cameroon were suspended by FIFA on 4 July 2013 for government interference.^[6] The suspension was lifted on 22 July 2013.^[7]

Group A

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ethiopia	6	4	1	1	8	6	+2	13	Third round		—	2–1	1–0	2–0
South Africa	6	3	2	1	12	5	+7	11			1–1	—	4–1	2–0
Botswana	6	2	1	3	8	10	−2	7			3–0[a]	1–1	—	3–2
Central African Republic	6	1	0	5	5	12	−7	3			1–2	0–3	2–0	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Awarded

Group B

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Tunisia	6	4	2	0	13	6	+7	14	Third round		—	3–0[a]	2–1	3–1
Cape Verde	6	3	0	3	9	7	+2	9			1–2	—	1–0	3–0[a]
Sierra Leone	6	2	2	2	10	10	0	8			2–2	2–1	—	3–2
Equatorial Guinea	6	0	2	4	6	15	−9	2			1–1	0–3[a]	2–2	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Awarded

Group C

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ivory Coast	6	4	2	0	15	5	+10	14	Third round		—	1–1	2–0	3–0
Morocco	6	2	3	1	9	8	+1	9			2–2	—	2–1	2–0
Tanzania	6	2	0	4	8	12	−4	6			2–4	3–1	—	2–1
Gambia	6	1	1	4	4	11	−7	4			0–3	1–1	2–0	—

Source: ^[8]

Group D

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Ghana	6	5	0	1	18	3	+15	15	Third round		—	2–1	7–0	4–0
Zambia	6	3	2	1	11	4	+7	11			1–0	—	4–0	1–1
Lesotho	6	1	2	3	4	15	−11	5			0–2	1–1	—	0–0
Sudan	6	0	2	4	3	14	−11	2			1–3	0–3[a]	1–3	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Awarded

Group E

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Burkina Faso	6	4	0	2	7	4	+3	12	Third round		—	0–3[a]	1–0	4–0
Congo	6	3	2	1	7	3	+4	11			0–1	—	1–0	1–0
Gabon	6	2	1	3	5	6	−1	7			1–0	0–0	—	4–1
Niger	6	1	1	4	6	12	−6	4			0–1	2–2	3–0[a]	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Awarded

Group F

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Nigeria	6	3	3	0	7	3	+4	12	Third round		—	2–0	1–1	1–0
Malawi	6	1	4	1	4	5	−1	7			1–1	—	2–2	0–0
Kenya	6	1	3	2	4	5	−1	6			0–1	0–0	—	1–0
Namibia	6	1	2	3	2	4	−2	5			1–1	0–1	1–0	—

Source: ^[8]

Group G

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Egypt	6	6	0	0	16	7	+9	18	Third round		—	4–2	2–0	2–1
Guinea	6	3	1	2	12	8	+4	10			2–3	—	6–1	1–0
Mozambique	6	0	3	3	2	10	−8	3			0–1	0–0	—	0–0
Zimbabwe	6	0	2	4	4	9	−5	2			2–4	0–1	1–1	—

Source: ^[8]

Group H

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Algeria	6	5	0	1	13	4	+9	15	Third round		—	1–0	3–1	4–0
Mali	6	2	2	2	7	7	0	8			2–1	—	2–2	1–1
Benin	6	2	2	2	8	9	−1	8			1–3	1–0	—	2–0
Rwanda	6	0	2	4	3	11	−8	2			0–1	1–2	1–1	—

Source: ^[8]

Group I

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Cameroon	6	4	1	1	8	3	+5	13	Third round		—	1–0	1–0	2–1
Libya	6	2	3	1	5	3	+2	9			2–1	—	0–0	2–0
DR Congo	6	1	3	2	3	3	0	6			0–0	0–0	—	2–0
Togo	6	1	1	4	4	11	−7	4			0–3[a]	1–1	2–1	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Awarded

Group J

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Senegal	6	3	3	0	9	4	+5	12	Third round		—	1–0	1–1	3–1
Uganda	6	2	2	2	5	6	−1	8			1–1	—	2–1	1–0
Angola	6	1	4	1	7	5	+2	7			1–1	1–1	—	3–0[a]
Liberia	6	1	1	4	3	9	−6	4			0–2	2–0	0–0	—

Source: ^[8]
Notes:

1. Awarded

Third round

Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF third round

The third round saw the 10 group winners from the second round drawn into five home and away ties. The winners of each tie advanced to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Seeding

The draw of the play-offs was held on 16 September 2013 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo.^[9] The teams were seeded based on the September 2013 edition of the FIFA Ranking (shown below in brackets).^[10][11]

Pot 1	Pot 2
Ivory Coast (19)  Ghana (24)  Algeria (28)  Nigeria (36)  Tunisia (46)	Egypt (50)  Burkina Faso (51)  Cameroon (61)  Senegal (66)  Ethiopia (93)

Matches

The matches were played in the periods of 11–15 October and 16–19 November 2013.^[2][12]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ivory Coast	4–2	Senegal	3–1	1–1
Ethiopia	1–4	Nigeria	1–2	0–2
Tunisia	1–4	Cameroon	0–0	1–4
Ghana	7–3	Egypt	6–1	1–2
Burkina Faso	3–3 (a)	Algeria	3–2	0–1

Qualified teams

The following five teams from CAF qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Ivory Coast	third round winners	16 November 2013	2 (2006, 2010)
Nigeria	third round winners	16 November 2013	4 (1994, 1998, 2002, 2010)
Cameroon	third round winners	17 November 2013	6 (1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010)
Ghana	third round winners	19 November 2013	2 (2006, 2010)
Algeria	third round winners	19 November 2013	3 (1982, 1986, 2010)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Top goalscorers

There were 389 goals scored in 152 matches, for an average of 2.56 goals per match.

6 goals

• Mohamed Aboutrika
• Mohamed Salah
• Asamoah Gyan

5 goals

• Islam Slimani
• Salomon Kalou
• Juvenal
• Getaneh Kebede
• Saladin Said
• Bernard Parker
• Papiss Cissé

4 goals

• Trésor Mputu
• Yaya Touré

Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

• First round
• Second round
• Third round