2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 4th edition of the quadrennial African football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its male national teams consisting of players under 23 years of age. It was held in Morocco between 24 June and 8 July 2023.^[2][3] It was the second time that Morocco hosted the tournament, as they were the inaugural hosts back in 2011.

2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

كأس الأمم الأفريقية تحت 23 سنة 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Morocco
Dates	24 June – 8 July
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Morocco (1st title)
Runners-up	Egypt
Third place	Mali
Fourth place	Guinea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	39 (2.44 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Emmanuel Yeboah Yanis Begraoui Abde Ezzalzouli (3 goals each)[1]
Best player(s)	Ibrahim Adel[1]
Best goalkeeper	Hamza Alaa[1]
Fair play award	Guinea[1]
← 2019 2027 →

The finalists and third-place playoff winner of this edition of the tournament qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Paris while the 4th-placed team will play the AFC–CAF playoff to decide the final Olympic slot.

Egypt were the defending champions, but failed to defend their title after a 2–1 loss to hosts Morocco in the final, although both were guaranteed qualification to the Olympic football tournament alongside Mali who won their third-place match against Guinea, who would later also qualify for the Olympics after emerging victorious in the playoff against the 4th-placed team from Asia, Indonesia. With the win, Morocco repeated the feat achieved at the 2018 African Nations Championship by hosting and winning a tournament at the same time.

Qualification

Main article: 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Morocco qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining 7 spots were determined by the qualifying rounds which took place on a home-and-away two-legged basis from 21 September 2022 to 28 March 2023.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the group stage.

Team	Date of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Morocco (hosts)	7 July 2022	2nd	2011	Runners-up (2011)
Egypt	26 March 2023	4th	2019	Champions (2019)
Congo	27 March 2023	1st	None	Debut
Gabon	28 March 2023	2nd	2011	Champions (2011)
Ghana	28 March 2023	2nd	2019	Fourth place (2019)
Guinea	28 March 2023	1st	None	Debut
Mali	28 March 2023	3rd	2019	Group stage (2015, 2019)
Niger	28 March 2023	1st	None	Debut

Venues

The matches were contested at two venues; the Ibn Batouta Stadium in Tangier and the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.

Tangier Rabat
Tangier	Rabat
Ibn Batouta Stadium	Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium
Capacity: 65,000	Capacity: 53,000

Squads

Further information: 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations squads

Draw

The draw was held on 5 May 2023 at 17:00 CET (UTC+1) at the Mohammed VI Football Academy in Salé.^[4] The 8 teams were drawn into two groups of four teams, with hosts Morocco seeded in Group A (position A1) and the defending champions Egypt seeded in Group B (position B1). The remaining 6 teams were allocated to two pots based on the results of the previous tournament edition and were drawn to the remaining positions.

Seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2
Morocco (position A1)  Egypt (position B1)	Ghana  Mali	Congo  Gabon  Guinea  Niger

Match officials

Referees

• Clement Franklin Kpan
• Mahmoud Nagy
• Pierre Ghislain Atcho
• Jalal Jayed
• Omar Abdulkadir Artan
• Abongile Tom
• Adalbert Diouf
• Youcef Gamouh
• Patrice Mebiame
• Lamin Jammeh
• Muhammad Elmabrouk

Assistant Referees

• Stephen Yiembe
• Joel Wonka Doe
• Sami Halal
• Styven Moutsassi
• Abdessamad Abertoune
• Wael Hannachi
• Adel Abane
• Jhonathan Ahonto Koffi
• Dimbiniaina Andriatianarivelo
• Youssef Mahmoud
• Igho Hope
• Hamza Naciri

Video Assistant Referees

• Maria Rivet
• Mohamed Hussien
• Dahane Beida
• Letticia Antonella Wiana
• Mustapha Ghorbal
• Haytem Guirat
• Peter Waweru
• Adil Zourak

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points; 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss. If tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 68):^[5]

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 were tied and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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, CET (UTC+1).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco (H)	3	3	0	0	8	2	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Guinea	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
3	Ghana	3	1	1	1	5	8	−3	4
4	Congo	3	0	0	3	3	7	−4	0

Source: Soccer24
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

24 June 2023 (2023-06-24)

21:00

Morocco	2–1	Guinea
Ezzalzouli 68' (pen.), 90+8' (pen.)	Report	Bah 45+2'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Omar Abdulkadir Artan (Somalia)

25 June 2023 (2023-06-25)

16:00

Ghana	3–2	Congo
Nuamah 50' Yeboah 75', 83' (pen.)	Report	R.T. Kokolo 90+3' Y. Ngatse 90+4'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Mahmoud Nagi (Egypt)

---

27 June 2023 (2023-06-27)

18:00

Congo	1–3	Guinea
Y. Ngatse 40'	Report	Camara 10' J. Bowamba 54' (o.g.) S. Soumah 84'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Clement Franklin Kpan (Ivory Coast)

27 June 2023 (2023-06-27)

21:00

Morocco	5–1	Ghana
Richardson 7' Saibari 13' Begraoui 30', 53' Ezzalzouli 48'	Report	S. Adams 43'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Patrice Mebiame (Gabon)

---

30 June 2023 (2023-06-30)

21:00

Congo	0–1	Morocco
	Report	Taha 7'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Mahmoud Nagi (Egypt)

30 June 2023 (2023-06-30)

21:00

Guinea	1–1	Ghana
Fofana 61'	Report	Yeboah 33'

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Muhammad Elmabrouk (Libya)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Egypt	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Mali	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6
3	Niger	3	1	1	1	1	2	−1	4
4	Gabon	3	0	0	3	1	6	−5	0

Source: Soccer24
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

25 June 2023 (2023-06-25)

18:00

Egypt	0–0	Niger
	Report

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Adalbert Diouf (Senegal)

25 June 2023 (2023-06-25)

21:00

Mali	3–1	Gabon
Sangare 20' (pen.) C. Doumbia 41' A. Tamboura 90+2'	Report	Ovono 3' (pen.)

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Jalal Jayed (Morocco)

---

28 June 2023

18:00

Egypt	1–0	Mali
Adel 10'	Report

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Lamin Jammeh (Gambia)

28 June 2023 (2023-06-28)

21:00

Gabon	0–1	Niger
	Report	Moumouni 60' (pen.)

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Youcef Gamouh (Algeria)

---

1 July 2023

21:00

Gabon	0–2	Egypt
	Report	M. Saber 82' Faisal 90+2' (pen.)

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Omar Abdulkadir Artan (Somalia)

1 July 2023

21:00

Niger	0–2	Mali
	Report	Sangare 49' (pen.) C. Doumbia 90'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Abongile Tom (South Africa)

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	4 July – Rabat
	Morocco (p)	2 (4)
					8 July – Rabat
	Mali	2 (3)
					Morocco (a.e.t.)	2
	4 July – Tangier
					Egypt	1
	Egypt	1
	Guinea	0
					Third-place match
					7 July – Tangier
					Mali (p)	0 (4)
					Guinea	0 (3)

Semi-finals

The winners qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

4 July 2023

21:00

Morocco	2–2 (a.e.t.)	Mali
El Ouahdi 14' El Ouazzani 111'	Report	Diambou 66' I. Maïga 116'
Penalties
Targhalline El Ouazzani Taha Ezzalzouli	4–3	Traoré Diambou H. Diallo M.L. Bah A. Diomandé

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Pierre Ghislain Atcho (Gabon)

---

4 July 2023

18:00

Egypt	1–0	Guinea
Shehata 8'	Report

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Abongile Tom (South Africa)

Third-place match

The winner (Mali) joined the finalists in qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics and the loser (Guinea) will play in the AFC–CAF play-off.

7 July 2023

18:00

Mali	0–0	Guinea
	Report
Penalties
I. Maïga Diambou Diallo Diomandé M.L. Bah	4–3	F. Camara A. Camara M.L. Soumah O. Camara Cissé

Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier

Referee: Youcef Gamouh (Algeria)

Final

8 July 2023

21:00

Morocco	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Egypt
Begraoui 37' Targhalline 105+3'	Report	Saber 10'

Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat

Referee: Peter Waweru (Kenya)

Winners

2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations champions
Morocco First title

Final ranking

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
	Morocco (H)	5	4	1	0	12	5	+7	13	Champions
	Egypt	5	3	1	1	5	2	+3	10	Runners-up
	Mali	5	2	2	1	7	4	+3	8	Third place
4	Guinea	5	1	2	2	5	5	0	5	Fourth place
5	Niger	3	1	1	1	1	2	−1	4	Eliminated in Group stage
6	Ghana	3	1	1	1	5	8	−3	4
7	Congo	3	0	0	3	3	7	−4	0
8	Gabon	3	0	0	3	1	6	−5	0

Source: CAF
(H) Hosts

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of this edition of the tournament:

Top Scorer	Best Player	Best Goalkeeper	Fair Play Award
Abde Ezzalzouli (3 goals, 3 assists)[1]	Ibrahim Adel[1]	Hamza Alaa[1]	Guinea[1]

Team of the tournament

The team of the tournament was announced by the CAF after the final.^[6]

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Hamza Alaa	Ibrahima Cisse Fodé Doucouré Hossam Abdelmaguid Zakaria El Ouahdi	Mamadou Sangare Amar Hamdy Ismael Saibari	Ibrahim Adel Osama Faisal Abde Ezzalzouli

Goalscorers

There were 39 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 2.44 goals per match.

3 goals

• Emmanuel Yeboah
• Yanis Begraoui
• Abde Ezzalzouli

2 goals

• Yann Ngatse
• Mahmoud Saber
• Cheickna Doumbia
• Mamadou Sangare

1 goal

• Reich Triomphe Kokolo
• Ibrahim Adel
• Osama Faisal
• Mohamed Shehata Mahmoud
• Emmanuel Ovono
• Salim Adams
• Ernest Nuamah
• Algassime Bah
• Aguibou Camara
• Ibrahima Breze Fofana
• Salifou Soumah
• Mamady Diambou
• Issoufi Maïga
• Alhassane Tamboura
• Zakaria El Ouahdi
• Amine El Ouazzani
• Amir Richardson
• Ismael Saibari
• Younes Taha
• Oussama Targhalline
• Abdoul Moumouni

1 own goal

• Jacques Bowamba (against Guinea)

Qualified teams for the 2024 Summer Olympics

The following four teams from CAF qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympic men's football tournament in France.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances at the Summer Olympics
Morocco	4 July 2023	7 (1964, 1972, 1984, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2012)
Egypt	4 July 2023	12 (1920, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1960, 1964, 1984, 1992, 2012, 2020)
Mali	7 July 2023	1 (2004)
Guinea	9 May 2024	1 (1968)