11 September 2019 – The African section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification with the first round completed on Tuesday, and now on to the second round.

Twenty-eight teams took part in the first round, now only 14 remain and will join the 26-top ranked nations in the second round.

These are qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cupto be held in Qatar.

A total of five slots in the final tournament are available for CAF teams.

Format:

At a meeting on 11 June 2018, CAF reverted to the format used for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification competition.

  • First round: 28 teams (ranked 27–54) played home-and-away overtwo legs. The 14 winners advanced to the second round.
  • Second round: 40 teams (ranked 1–26 and 14 first-round winners) will be divided into ten groups of four teams to play home-and-awayround-robin  The ten group winners advance to the third round.
  • Third round: The ten second round group winners play home-and-away overtwo legs. The five winners qualify for the World Cup.

 

The 14 nations that took part in the first round and will be going into the hat for the second round are as follows (in bold):

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Ethiopia  1–1 (a) Lesotho 0–0 1–1
Somalia 2–3 Zimbabwe 1–0 1–3
Eritrea 1–4 Namibia 1–2 0–2
Burundi 2–2 (0–3 p) Tanzania 1–1 1–1 (a.e.t.)
Djibouti  2–1 Eswatini 2–1 0–0
Botswana 0–1 Malawi 0–0 0–1
Gambia 1–3 Angola 0–1 1–2
Liberia  3–2 Sierra Leone 3–1 0–1
Mauritius 0–3 Mozambique 0–1 0–2
São Tomé and Príncipe 1–3 Guinea-Bissau 0–1 1–2
South Sudan 1–2 Equatorial Guinea 1–1 0–1
Comoros 1–3 Togo 1–1 0–2
Chad 1–3 Sudan 1–3 0–0
Seychelles 0–10 Rwanda 0–3 0–7

 

Second round:

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF Second Round

The second round will see the top 26 ranked CAF teams joined by the 14 winners from the first round. These teams will be drawn into ten groups of four teams. Competition for the second round kicks off in March 2020.

Teams in the second round:

 

Schedule:

Below is the schedule of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

Stage Matchday FIFA International Dates
First Round First leg 4–7 September 2019
Second leg 8–10 September 2019
Second Round Match day 1 23–31 March 2020
Match day 2 1–9 June 2020
Match day 3 22–30 March 2021
Match day 4
Match day 5 30 August–7 September 2021
Match day 6 4–12 October 2021
Third Round First leg 8–16 November 2021
Second leg