Away from Europe, the conflict raged in the playoffs qualifying to the World Cup finals in Russia 2018 this week in the rest of the continents; Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The league championships stopped everywhere, while the leagues’ stars prepared to get involved in the continental arena to secure every country’s opportunity to reach to the World Cup.
In Africa, 20 leagues got their feet in the final stage of the African playoffs, the groups’ stages, in which these leagues will be divided into five groups, four in each. Only the team in first place in every group will qualify to the finals of Russia 2018.
The African leagues that qualified to that critical phase are Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya; an Arab quintet, with 15 other leagues: Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Uganda, Guinea, Congo, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Cape Verde.
It is intended to conduct the draw of these confrontations and choose the five groups before mid 2016. It has been said the date determined to conduct the groups’ draw is June 2016, which was not yet confirmed, where the Confederation of African Football (CAF) asserted that it presented suggestions about the date to FIFA. However, it was not agreed yet on the final date.
Half of the 40 leagues played matches within the first preliminary stage, through which 20 leagues qualified to face in the second stage. It took place during this week in the continental and international qualifiers.
Egypt faced Chad and in surprise, the former lost the match that took place in Chad before it took revenge in the match in Egypt, in which it won 4-0. As a result, Egypt qualified to the groups’ stage, hoping to qualify to the finals after 28 years of absence. The last time they were in the World Cup was in Italy 1990.
As for Ghana’s national team, which qualified three times in a row for the finals since the tournament of 2006 until 2014, it tied 0-0 in the first match with the Comoro Islands, then had a rematch and won 2-0, reaching the groups’ stages. Ghana was about to reach the semi-finals in the 2010 tournament that took place in South Africa but was defeated on penalties in front of Uruguay, in a match where Ghana was more powerful.
The veteran Cameroonian team succeeded to qualify as well, removing Niger’s team, after defeating it at home 3-0. They tied 0-0 in their home game after they guaranteed qualifying through the rematch. Cameroon seeks achieving the eighth qualification to the World Cup and making better results than the past. It was always leaving the first round, except for its memorial participation in 1990, through which it reached the eighth round with the wonderful veteran Roger Milla.
Côte d’Ivoire’s team did not meet any difficulty in beating Liberia, where it achieved victory in both the first match and the rematch; first by 1-0 and then by 3-0 in Côte d’Ivoire, easily qualifying to the groups’ stage as well. Côte d’Ivoire qualified to the World Cup three times in a row as well, in 2006, 2010, and 2014.
The Nigerian team qualified to this final stage after a goalless away match in Swaziland, which was considered a surprise, while in the home match the Nigerian team won with two goals. Nigeria is the second highest participating African team in the World Cup. Nigeria participated five times in the World Cup Championships, the last of which was in 2010 and 2014. Nigeria passed to the second round of the championship three times.
As for Bafana Bafana, the South African national football team also reached the final phase after defeating Angola’s national team in the away match by 3-1 and in the home match by 1-0. South Africa entered the continent’s football history after being qualified to the World Cup three times; the first time in 1998, the last in 2010, when the championship took place in their homeland.
Senegal national team succeeded to be qualified in this phase after defeating Madagascar. Senegal is hoping to be qualified to the finals for the second time, after participating for the first time in 2002.
On the Arab level, with Egypt’s qualification to the final stage, the Algerian team was also qualified to the same stage after defeating Tanzania by 7-0. Arabs are hoping for the Algerian team’s awakening, which began in 2010 and continued in 2014 when they qualified to the championship’s second round but were defeated by Germany. Algeria participated in the World Cup four times; the first in 1982.
Morocco qualified with difficulty after defeating Equatorial Guinea by 2-0 in their away game and lost the home match by 1-0. Morocco is seeking its return to old glory since it previously qualified four times.
The Tunisian team, which participated four times, also qualified to the final stage after defeating Mauritania by 2-1 in both matches. Tunisians are waiting to return to the World Cup after their absence since 2006.
Despite Libya’s difficult political situations, their team qualified to this final stage as well after defeating Rwanda. Libya has never qualified to the World Cup finals.
On the Asian level, the UAE team continued to chase their Saudi Arabian rival in Group A of the playoffs, where the UAE won with 2-1 against Malaysia. The Saudi team crushed East Timor with 10-0, making the Saudi team at the top of their group with 16 points followed by the UAE with 13 points.
In Group B, Jordon shockingly lost against Kyrgyzstan team with a score of 1-0 to freeze Jordon’s score at 13 points in second place behind Australia, which is leading with 15 points after defeating Bangladesh with clean score of 4-0. In third place comes Kyrgyzstan with 11 points.
Qatar continues its lead in group C with a score of 18 points after winning its sixth match in a row against Bhutan with a score of 3-0. They take advantage of the draw between Hong Kong and China, who occupy second and third place with scores 14 and 11 points respectively.
In Group D, things started to heat up after the loss of Oman against Turkmenistan with a score of 2-1 and Iran’s victory against Guam with a score of 6-0, giving Iran’s team the lead with 14 points followed by Oman with 11 points then Turkmenistan with 10 points.
Japan takes the lead in Group E with 16 points, followed by Syria with 15 points. Japan won against Cambodia with a score 2-0, while Syria won in the final seconds with 2-1 against Singapore.
Thailand takes the lead in Group F with 13 points after the victory against Chinese Taipei with a score of 4-2, followed by Iraq with 8 points in the group where Indonesia situation had been suspended by FFA.
South Korea takes the lead in Group G with 18 points in the absence of clarity regarding Kuwait’s position after the decision from the International Olympic Committee and FIFA to suspend sports activities there, freezing its score at 10 points evenly with Lebanon.
North Korea plays against Uzbekistan in Group H after the victory of the former against Bahrain with 2-0 and the victory of Uzbekistan against Yemen with a score of 3-1. North Korea is in the lead with 16 points, then Uzbekistan with 15 points, taking into account that the latter played fewer matches.
It is known that in this second stage of the Asian qualifiers, the lead teams will qualify to the third and final stage and with them the best of four teams in second positions in their groups. These 12 teams will all be divided into two groups of six teams each. The first and second in each of these, two groups will qualify directly to the world cup and the third of each goes into playoffs.
These qualifiers are double since 12 teams in this stage qualify directly to the Asian Cup in 2019 then a separate qualifying competition is held for 24 teams to qualify 11 of them to the Asian Cup.
Some of the matches in the fourth round of qualifiers were held in South America, where Argentina won its first match against Colombia with a clean goal. The rest of the matches continued in South and North America, it the matches are expected to resume in March 2016.
