The curtain has fallen on the 2025 AFCON qualifiers and now it’s time to draw some conclusions. Who exceeded the expectations and who fell short? Who was expected to be in Morocco, and who qualified instead? Who could have done better, and which stars will miss the tournament?Harambee Stars huff and puff but end AFCON Qualifiers with drab draw against NamibiaFirstly, compared to the previous AFCON, held in Ivory Coast at the beginning of the year, there are seven different participants, meaning that the “core” remains the same. In the west of Africa, we could enjoy performances of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Guinea, Ghana, Mauritania, Gambia, and Namibia, which will be replaced in Morocco by Gabon, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Sudan, Benin, and Botswana.24/24. The plane to #AFCON2025 is ready to take off! ✈️ pic.twitter.com/qsy8Q76EPH— AFCON 2025 (@Afcon2025EN) November 19, 2024 Speaking of the core mentioned above, Morocco (as the hosts), Cameroon, Algeria, Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Tunisia, and Nigeria all qualified more or less without a hitch, and the next champion of Africa could easily come from this group of teams.There are also the lately regular participants like DR Congo (champions in 1968 and 1974), Gabon, Mali (runners-up in 1972), Zambia (2012 winners), Angola, Burkina Faso, Uganda (finalists in 1978), and Equatorial Guinea. 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐨 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓, 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐠𝐨! 🏆 #AFCON2025 pic.twitter.com/xGC2kqCxKE— AFCON 2025 (@Afcon2025EN) November 19, 2024 When it comes to surprises or unforeseen travellers to Morocco, the first among equals have to be Botswana and Comoros. The Zebras are up for their only second participation, as they qualified for the 2012 AFCON and recorded all three defeats with a 2-9 goal difference. On the other hand, Comoros’ first and only AFCON was much more successful, as they reached Round 16 in 2021.##NAJAVA_MECA_8514959##After a six-year break, Benin returns to the tournament as well as Mozambique, which failed to win a single match in its five appearances at the AFCON. Tanzania and Sudan were initially not seen at the tournament, especially considering that Ghana and Guinea were in their groups. Still, the Taifa Stars and Falcons of Jediane progressed.The likes of Kudus, Semenyo, Fatawu, Partey, Lamptey, Ayew, and more… but 🇬🇭 Ghana have failed to reach the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 2004 after a disastrous qualifying campaign. pic.twitter.com/uK6LdbDFeF— Football Focus (@Footballfocus98) November 18, 2024 As for the disappointments, one cannot help but think of Ghana… How on Earth did the star-studded team, four-time champions of Africa, and a country with 24 AFCON appearances (third behind Egypt and Ivory Coast) manage to fail to qualify?! Tariq Lamptey (Brighton), Mohammed Salisu (Monaco), Mohammed Kudus (West Ham), Thomas Partey (Arsenal), Jordan Ayew (Leicester), Issahaku Fatawu (Leicester), Antoine Semenyo (Bournemouth), and Inaki Williams (Athletic Bilbao), among others, were not good enough to beat Angola, Sudan, and Niger and take one of two places that led to Morocco… A disaster for Ghanaian football.CAF Awards: Lookman to battle PSG and Dortmund stars for top honourApart from the Black Stars’ aces, Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy failed to book the ticket to AFCON despite netting six goals, as his Guinea lost to Tanzania in yesterday’s decisive game, while Geoffrey Kondogbia of Marseille and his Central African Republic had little chance in a group with Morocco, Gabon, and Lesotho.
