2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group I

Group I of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification tournament was one of the twelve groups that decided the teams which qualified for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations finals tournament. The group consisted of four teams: DR Congo, Gabon, Mauritania and Sudan.^[1]

The teams played against each other in a home-and-away round-robin format between 4 June 2022 and 9 September 2023.^[2]

DR Congo and Mauritania, the group winners and runners-up respectively, qualified for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Standings

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[a]	—	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	—

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

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.^[3]

Matches

4 June 2022 (2022-06-04)

19:00 UTC+0

Mauritania	3–0	Sudan
Kamara 27' (pen.), 30' Mahmoud 77'	Report

Stade Olympique, Nouakchott

Referee: Fabricio Duarte (Cape Verde)

4 June 2022 (2022-06-04)

21:00 UTC+1

DR Congo	0–1	Gabon
	Report	Babicka 23'

Stade des Martyrs, Kinshasa

Referee: Bernard Camille (Seychelles)

---

8 June 2022 (2022-06-08)

17:00 UTC+1

Gabon	0–0	Mauritania
	Report

Stade de Franceville, Franceville

Referee: Messie Nkounkou (Congo)

8 June 2022 (2022-06-08)

21:00 UTC+2

Sudan	2–1	DR Congo
Al-Shoala 16' Abdelrahman 86'	Report	Bolingi 90+3'

Al Hilal Stadium, Omdurman

Referee: Joshua Bondo (Botswana)

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23 March 2023 (2023-03-23)

20:00 UTC+1

Gabon	1–0	Sudan
Palun 71'	Report

Stade de Franceville, Franceville

Referee: Haythem Guirat (Tunisia)

24 March 2023 (2023-03-24)

15:00 UTC+2

DR Congo	3–1	Mauritania
Kakuta 37' Bakambu 42' Masuaku 67'	Report	Abeid 55'

Stade TP Mazembe, Lubumbashi

Referee: Abongile Tom (South Africa)

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27 March 2023 (2023-03-27)

22:00 UTC+2

Sudan	1–0	Gabon
Kome 67'	Report

Al Hilal Stadium, Omdurman

Referee: Lotfi Bekouassa (Algeria)

28 March 2023 (2023-03-28)

22:00 UTC+0

Mauritania	0–3 Awarded[note 1]	DR Congo
Soueid 57'	Report	Bakambu 9'

Stade Cheikha Ould Boïdiya, Nouakchott

Referee: Sadok Selmi (Tunisia)

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18 June 2023 (2023-06-18)

19:00 UTC+1

Gabon	0–2	DR Congo
	Report	Tshibola 34' Mayele 83'

Stade de Franceville, Franceville

Referee: Amin Omar (Egypt)

20 June 2023 (2023-06-20)

19:00 UTC+1

Sudan	0–3	Mauritania
	Report	El Abd 26' Houbeib 49' Tanjy 55'

Adrar Stadium, Agadir (Morocco)

Referee: Ibrahim Mutaz (Libya)

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9 September 2023 (2023-09-09)

16:00 UTC+0

Mauritania	2–1	Gabon
Tanjy 30' Kamara 42'	Report	Ndong 90+1'

Stade Cheikha Ould Boïdiya, Nouakchott

Referee: Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)

9 September 2023 (2023-09-09)

17:00 UTC+1

DR Congo	2–0	Sudan
Bongonda 8' Mayele 87'	Report

Stade des Martyrs, Kinshasa

Referee: Samir Guezzaz (Morocco)

Goalscorers

There were 25 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of 2.08 goals per match.

3 goals

• Aboubakar Kamara

2 goals

• Cédric Bakambu
• Fiston Mayele
• Hemeya Tanjy

1 goal

• Jonathan Bolingi
• Théo Bongonda
• Gaël Kakuta
• Arthur Masuaku
• Aaron Tshibola
• Shavy Babicka
• Didier Ndong
• Lloyd Palun
• Aly Abeid
• Nouh Mohamed El Abd
• Hassan Houbeib
• Abdallahi Mahmoud
• Mouhamed Soueid
• Mohamed Abdelrahman
• Waleed Al-Shoala
• Muhamed Kome

Notes

1. CAF awarded DR Congo a 3–0 win as a result of Mauritania fielding the 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 2020 African Nations Championship qualification.^[3]