2018 African Nations Championship

The 2018 African Nations Championship, known as the 2018 CHAN for short and for sponsorship purposes as the Total African Nations Championship, was the 5th edition of the biennial association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) featuring players from their respective national leagues. Originally supposed to be hosted in Kenya,^[1][2] it was instead hosted by Morocco from 13 January to 4 February 2018.

2018 African Nations Championship

2018 CHAN 2018 بطولة امم افريقيا Championnat d'Afrique des nations de football 2018
Tournament details
Host country	Morocco
Dates	13 January – 4 February
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Morocco (1st title)
Runners-up	Nigeria
Third place	Sudan
Fourth place	Libya
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	58 (1.81 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ayoub El Kaabi (9 goals)
Best player(s)	Ayoub El Kaabi
Fair play award	Morocco
← 2016 2020 →

The 2016 finalists, DR Congo and Mali, failed to qualify for this edition following their qualification losses, Mali losing 3–2 to Mauritania on aggregate and DR Congo losing to the neighbouring Congo via the away goals rule. Hosts Morocco defeated Nigeria 4–0 in the final to win their first title which made Morocco the first team to win the tournament on home soil.^[3][4][5]

Host selection

Following the conclusion of the final of the previous edition in Rwanda on 7 February 2016, CAF announced Kenya as the host nation of the next edition 48 hours later.^[1][2][6] However, CAF decided to change the host nation on 23 September the following year due to a lack of progress with preparations^[7] and open up a new tender process for a replacement team with the deadline of 30 September 2017. The countries who submitted to replace Kenya as hosts are:^[8]

•  Equatorial Guinea
•  Ethiopia
•  Morocco (selected as hosts)

The Ethiopian Football Federation did not provide the government's letter of guarantee and were not considered; the CAF Emergency Committee decided on 15 October that year to choose Morocco over Equatorial Guinea.^[9][10]

Qualification

Main article: 2018 African Nations Championship qualification

The qualification rounds took place from 20 April to 20 August 2017.^[11]

Since Morocco had already qualified in the Northern Zone before replacing Kenya as hosts, their spot in the main phase was re-allocated to their opponents in the Northern Zone final qualifying round, Egypt.^[12] However, Egypt declined to participate citing a "congested domestic calendar".^[13] As a result, the spot was reverted to Central-East Zone (as originally three teams would participate including original-turned-stripped hosts Kenya), and would go to the winner of a play-off in November 2017 between Ethiopia and Rwanda, the two teams which lost in the Central-East Zone final qualifying round.^[14]

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the group stage of this edition of the tournament:

Team	Zone	Appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking at start of event
Cameroon	Central Zone	3rd	Quarter-finals (2011, 2016)	45
Congo		2nd	Group stage (2014)	96
Equatorial Guinea		1st	Debut	146
Rwanda	Central-East Zone	3rd	Quarter-finals (2016)	113
Sudan		2nd	Third place (2011)	136
Uganda		4th	Group stage (2011, 2014, 2016)	75
Libya	North Zone	3rd	Champions (2014)	88
Morocco (hosts)		3rd	Quarter-finals (2014)	40
Angola	South Zone	3rd	Runners-up (2011)	141
Namibia		1st	Debut	118
Zambia		3rd	Third place (2009)	74
Guinea	West A Zone	2nd	Fourth place (2016)	65
Mauritania		2nd	Group stage (2014)	99
Burkina Faso	West B Zone	2nd	Group stage (2014)	44
Ivory Coast		4th	Third place (2016)	61
Nigeria		3rd	Third place (2014)	51

Venues

This edition of the tournament had matches held in Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier.

Casablanca	Casablanca Agadir Marrakesh Tangier	Marrakesh
Stade Mohamed V		Stade de Marrakech
Capacity: 45,600		Capacity: 45,240
Tangier		Agadir
Ibn Batouta Stadium		Stade Adrar
Capacity: 45,000		Capacity: 45,480

Before Kenya was stripped of its hosting rights, its football association planned to use 4 stadiums for this edition of the tournament.^[15] However, only Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi and Kasarani Stadium in Kasarani were considered to meet hosting requirements after inspections by CAF, while Mombasa Municipal Stadium in Mombasa and Kinoru Stadium in Meru did not.^[16]

Squads

Main article: 2018 African Nations Championship squads

The squads of the participating teams each consisting of 23 players per the tournament's regulation article 72^[17] were announced by CAF on 10 January 2018.^[18][19]

Match officials

A total of 32 match officials (16 referees and 16 assistant referees) were selected for this edition of the tournament, of which 7 were selected to operate the video assistant referee (VAR) system in a CAF competition for the first time ever, beginning at the knockout stages.^[20][21][22]

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held at Sofitel Rabat in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on 17 November 2017 at 19:30 WET (UTC±0).^[23]

The teams were drawn into 4 groups of 4.^[24] The hosts Morocco were seeded in Group A. The remaining teams were seeded based on their results in the four most recent editions of the tournament: 2009 (multiplied by 1), 2011 (multiplied by 2), 2014 (multiplied by 3), 2016 (multiplied by 4):^[25][26][27]

• 7 points for winner
• 5 points for runner-up
• 3 points for semi-finalists
• 2 points for quarter-finalists
• 1 point for group stage

Based on the formula above, the 4 pots were allocated as follows:

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Morocco (hosts) (10 pts)  Libya (22 pts)  Ivory Coast (15 pts)  Angola (14 pts)	Nigeria (13 pts)  Guinea (12 pts)  Cameroon (12 pts)  Zambia (11 pts)	Rwanda (10 pts)  Uganda (9 pts)  Sudan (6 pts)  Congo (3 pts)	Burkina Faso (3 pts)  Mauritania (3 pts)  Namibia (0 pts)  Equatorial Guinea (0 pts)

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stage.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 74):^[17]

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. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WET (UTC±0).^[28]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco (H)	3	2	1	0	7	1	+6	7	Knockout stage
2	Sudan	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	7
3	Guinea	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
4	Mauritania	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Source: CAF (archived)
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

13 January 2018 (2018-01-13)

19:30

Morocco	4–0	Mauritania
El Kaabi 66', 79' Haddad 71' Bencharki 90+2'	Report

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Janny Sikazwe (Zambia)^[29]

14 January 2018 (2018-01-14)

14:30

Guinea	1–2	Sudan
Sékou Camara 55'	Report	Koko 19' Teiri 75'

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Hélder Martins de Carvalho (Angola)

---

17 January 2018 (2018-01-17)

16:30

Morocco	3–1	Guinea
El Kaabi 27', 65', 68'	Report	Saïdouba Camara 29'

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Abou Coulibaly (Ivory Coast)

17 January 2018 (2018-01-17)

19:30

Sudan	1–0	Mauritania
W.E. Musa 30'	Report

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Sadok Selmi (Tunisia)

---

21 January 2018 (2018-01-21)

19:00

Sudan	0–0	Morocco
	Report

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Jean-Jacques Ndala Ngambo (DR Congo)

21 January 2018 (2018-01-21)

19:00

Mauritania	0–1	Guinea
	Report	Sankhon 15'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Jackson Pavaza (Namibia)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7	Knockout stage
2	Namibia	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	7
3	Uganda	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1
4	Ivory Coast	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1

Source: CAF (archived)
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

14 January 2018 (2018-01-14)

16:30

Ivory Coast	0–1	Namibia
	Report	Hambira 90'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Noureddine El Jaafari (Morocco)

14 January 2018 (2018-01-14)

19:30

Zambia	3–1	Uganda
Kambole 38' Mulenga 63' Kapumbu 71'	Report	Nsibambi 40'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Mehdi Abid Charef (Algeria)

---

18 January 2018 (2018-01-18)

16:30

Ivory Coast	0–2	Zambia
	Report	Mulenga 8', 74'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Hamada Nampiandraza (Madagascar)

18 January 2018 (2018-01-18)

19:30

Uganda	0–1	Namibia
	Report	Nekundi 90+2'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Ibrahim Nour El Din (Egypt)

---

22 January 2018 (2018-01-22)

19:00

Uganda	0–0	Ivory Coast
	Report

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Hélder Martins de Carvalho (Angola)

22 January 2018 (2018-01-22)

19:00

Namibia	1–1	Zambia
Iimbondi 13'	Report	Kambole 24'

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Louis Hakizimana (Rwanda)

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Nigeria	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7	Knockout stage
2	Libya	3	2	0	1	4	1	+3	6
3	Rwanda	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
4	Equatorial Guinea	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

15 January 2018 (2018-01-15)

16:30

Libya	3–0	Equatorial Guinea
Al Taher 11', 16' Alharaish 86'	Report

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Mahamadou Keita (Mali)

15 January 2018 (2018-01-15)

19:30

Nigeria	0–0	Rwanda
	Report

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Victor Gomes (South Africa)

---

19 January 2018 (2018-01-19)

16:30

Libya	0–1	Nigeria
	Report	Faleye 79'

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)

19 January 2018 (2018-01-19)

19:30

Rwanda	1–0	Equatorial Guinea
Manzi 66'	Report

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Daniel Laryea (Ghana)

---

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)

19:00

Rwanda	0–1	Libya
	Report	Abushnaf 90+2'

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Noureddine El Jaafari (Morocco)

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)

19:00

Equatorial Guinea	1–3	Nigeria
Amor 40'	Report	Okpotu 60' Ojo 69' Ali 84' (pen.)

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Abou Coulibaly (Ivory Coast)

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Congo	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Knockout stage
2	Angola	3	1	2	0	1	0	+1	5
3	Burkina Faso	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
4	Cameroon	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

Source: CAF (archived)
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

16 January 2018 (2018-01-16)

16:30

Angola	0–0	Burkina Faso
	Report

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Bamlak Tessema Weyesa (Ethiopia)

16 January 2018 (2018-01-16)

19:30

Cameroon	0–1	Congo
	Report	Makiesse 72' (pen.)

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Gehad Grisha (Egypt)

---

20 January 2018 (2018-01-20)

16:30

Angola	1–0	Cameroon
Job 30' (pen.)	Report

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Maguette N'Diaye (Senegal)

20 January 2018 (2018-01-20)

19:30

Congo	2–0	Burkina Faso
C. Bakoua 67' Bidimbou 90+2'	Report

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Pacifique Ndabihawenimana (Burundi)

---

24 January 2018 (2018-01-24)

19:00

Congo	0–0	Angola
	Report

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)

24 January 2018 (2018-01-24)

19:00

Burkina Faso	1–1	Cameroon
Sylla 42'	Report	P. Moussombo 52'

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Victor Gomes (South Africa)

Knockout stage

From this stage onward, the video assistant referee (VAR) system would make its debut in a CAF competition. Extra time and penalty shoot-out were used if necessary to decide the winner, except for the third-place match where penalty shoot-out and no extra time was used if necessary to decide the winner per the competition's regulations article 75.^[17]

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	27 January – Casablanca
	Morocco	2
					31 January – Casablanca
	Namibia	0
					Morocco (a.e.t.)	3
	28 January – Agadir
					Libya	1
	Congo	1 (3)
									4 February – Casablanca
	Libya (p)	1 (5)
									Morocco	4
	27 January – Marrakech
									Nigeria	0
	Zambia	0
					31 January – Marrakech
	Sudan	1
					Sudan	0
	28 January – Tangier
					Nigeria	1			Third place
	Nigeria (a.e.t.)	2
									3 February – Marrakech
	Angola	1
									Libya	1 (2)
									Sudan (p)	1 (4)

Quarter-finals

27 January 2018 (2018-01-27)

16:30

Morocco	2–0	Namibia
El Kaabi 36' Saidi 54'	Report

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Mahamadou Keita (Mali)

---

27 January 2018 (2018-01-27)

19:30

Zambia	0–1	Sudan
	Report	Teiri 32'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Bamlak Tessema Weyesa (Ethiopia)

---

28 January 2018 (2018-01-28)

16:30

Nigeria	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Angola
Okpotu 90+2' Okechukwu 109'	Report	Vá 56'

Stade Ibn Batouta, Tangier

Referee: Sadok Selmi (Tunisia)

---

28 January 2018 (2018-01-28)

19:30

Congo	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Libya
Junior Makiesse 32'	Report	Saleh Al Taher 14'
Penalties
F.B. Kibamba Mboungou Mouko Rozan	3–5	M. Taktak A. Khalleefah A. Alaqoub A. Al-Maghasi Sand Masaud

Stade Adrar, Agadir

Referee: Hamada Nampiandraza (Madagascar)

Semi-finals

31 January 2018 (2018-01-31)

16:30

Morocco	3–1 (a.e.t.)	Libya
El Kaabi 73', 97' El Karti 119' (pen.)	Report	A. Khalleefah 86'

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Referee: Janny Sikazwe (Zambia)

---

31 January 2018 (2018-01-31)

19:30

Sudan	0–1	Nigeria
	Report	Okechukwu 16'

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Malang Diedhiou (Senegal)

Third place match

3 February 2018 (2018-02-03)

19:00

Libya	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Sudan
Ablo 84'	Report	Walaa Eldin 6'
Penalties
M. Taktak M. Elhouni A. Alaqoub Ablo	2–4	M. El Tahir A. El Tahir Ahmed Adam Mohamed Maaz Abdelraheem

Stade de Marrakech, Marrakech

Referee: Mehdi Abid Charef (Algeria)

Final

Main article: 2018 African Nations Championship Final

4 February 2018 (2018-02-04)

19:00

Morocco	4–0	Nigeria
Hadraf 44', 64' El Karti 61' El Kaabi 73'	Report

Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca

Attendance: 75,000

Referee: Bakary Gassama (Gambia)

Goalscorers

9 goals

• Ayoub El Kaabi

3 goals

• Saleh Al Taher
• Augustine Mulenga

2 goals

• Walid El Karti
• Zakaria Hadraf
• Junior Makiesse
• Gabriel Okechukwu
• Anthony Okpotu
• Walaa Eldin Musa
• Seif Teiri
• Lazarous Kambole

1 goal

• Job
• Vá
• Mohamed Sydney Sylla
• Patrick Moussombo
• Carof Bakoua
• Kader Bidimbou
• Amor
• Saïdouba Bissiri Camara
• Sékou Amadou Camara
• Ibrahima Sory Sankhon
• Salem Ablo
• Elmutasem Abushnaf
• Zakaria Alharaish
• Abdulrahman Khalleefah
• Achraf Bencharki
• Ismail Haddad
• Salaheddine Saidi
• Vetunuavi Hambira
• Absalom Iimbondi
• Panduleni Nekundi
• Rabiu Ali
• Sunday Faleye
• Dayo Ojo
• Thierry Manzi
• Omer Suleiman
• Derrick Nsibambi
• Fackson Kapumbu

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:^[30]

Total Man of the Competition
Ayoub El Kaabi[30]
Top Scorer
Ayoub El Kaabi[30] (9 goals)
CAF Fair Play Team
Morocco[30]

Team of the Tournament

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Akram El Hadi	Omer Suliman Stephen Eze Badr Benoun	Dayo Ojo Walid El Karti Salaheddine Saidi Zakaria Hadraf Abdulrahman Ramadhan	Ayoub El Kaabi Saleh Taher

Substitutes: Anas Zniti (Morocco), Sand Masaud (Libya), Vá (Angola), Bader Hasan (Libya), Augustine Mulenga (Zambia), Saifeldin Bakhit (Sudan), Ismail El Haddad (Morocco)

Man of the match

Stage	Team 1	Result	Team 2	Man of the Match
First round of group stage matches
Group A	Morocco	4–0	Mauritania	Abdelilah Hafidi
	Guinea	1–2	Sudan	Saifeldin Malik Bakhit
Group B	Ivory Coast	0–1	Namibia	Vetunuavi Hambira
	Zambia	3–1	Uganda	Lazarous Kambole
Group C	Libya	3–0	Equatorial Guinea	Saleh Al Taher
	Nigeria	0–0	Rwanda	Djihad Bizimana
Group D	Angola	0–0	Burkina Faso	Vá
	Cameroon	0–1	Congo	Prestige Mboungou
Group A	Morocco	3–1	Guinea	Ayoub El Kaabi
	Sudan	1–0	Mauritania	Omer Suleiman Koko
Group B	Ivory Coast	0–2	Zambia	Augustine Mulenga
	Uganda	0–1	Namibia	Lloyd Kazapua
Group C	Libya	0–1	Nigeria	Stephen Eze
	Rwanda	1–0	Equatorial Guinea	Thierry Manzi
Group D	Angola	1–0	Cameroon	Vá
	Congo	2–0	Burkina Faso	Junior Makiesse
Group A	Sudan	0–0	Morocco	Akram El Hadi Salim
	Mauritania	0–1	Guinea	Ibrahima Sory Sankhon
Group B	Uganda	0–0	Ivory Coast	Kouamé N'Guessan
	Namibia	1–1	Zambia	Teberius Lombard
Group C	Rwanda	0–1	Libya	Elmutasem Abushnaf
	Equatorial Guinea	1–3	Nigeria	Dayo Ojo
Group D	Congo	0–0	Angola	Francoeur Baron Kibamba
	Burkina Faso	1–1	Cameroon	Wend-Panga Bambara
Knockout stage matches
Quarter-finals	Morocco	2–0	Namibia	Salaheddine Saidi
	Zambia	0–1	Sudan	Mohamed Hashim
	Nigeria	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Angola	Ikechukwu Ezenwa
	Congo	1–1 (a.e.t.) (3–5 p)	Libya	Abdulrahman Khalleefah
Semi-finals	Morocco	3–1 (a.e.t.)	Libya	Ayoub El Kaabi
	Sudan	0–1	Nigeria	Gabriel Okechukwu
Third place match	Libya	1–1 (2–4 p)	Sudan	Muhannad El Tahir
Final	Morocco	4–0	Nigeria	Zakaria Hadraf

Tournament team rankings

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
1	Morocco (H)	6	5	1	0	16	2	+14	16	Champions
2	Nigeria	6	4	1	1	7	6	+1	13	Runners-up
3	Sudan	6	3	2	1	5	3	+2	11	Third place
4	Libya	6	2	2	2	7	6	+1	8	Fourth place
5	Congo	4	2	2	0	4	1	+3	8	Eliminated at the quarter-finals
6	Zambia	4	2	1	1	6	3	+3	7
7	Namibia	4	2	1	1	3	3	0	7
8	Angola	4	1	2	1	2	2	0	5
9	Rwanda	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4	Eliminated at the group stage
10	Guinea	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
11	Burkina Faso	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
12	Cameroon	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
13	Uganda	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1
14	Ivory Coast	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1
15	Equatorial Guinea	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0
16	Mauritania	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(H) Hosts