2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Africa. 51 teams took part (only Djibouti did not enter), competing for 5 World Cup places.

The qualification was composed of two Rounds. 9 teams entered the competition directly on the Second Round: the 5 teams that qualified for the 2002 World Cup Finals (Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia) and the 4 highest-ranking teams in the June 25, 2003 FIFA world rankings (Congo DR, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, and Morocco). The other 42 teams were paired 2-by-2 and played knock-out matches home-and-away. The 21 winners would advance to the Second Round.

In the Second Round, the 30 teams were divided in 5 groups of 6 teams each. Teams in each group would play against each other in a home-and-away basis. The team with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup.

The competition also constituted the qualification competition for the 2006 African Nations Cup with the top three nations of each group qualifying (except for Egypt, which qualifies as the host nation, the fourth nation in Egypt's group qualifying in Egypt's place).

The African qualifying zone saw 4 out of 5 finals places going to World Cup debutants (Angola, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana). Nigeria missed out on a fourth consecutive finals appearance while Cameroon did not reach their fifth consecutive finals.

The African zone also featured a group of death — Group 3, which brought together Africa's most frequent World Cup qualifier Cameroon with the two eventual finalists of the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations: Egypt and the Ivory Coast.

Tiebreakers

If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked as follows:

1. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
2. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
3. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
4. goal difference in all group matches
5. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
6. a play-off on neutral ground, with extra time and penalties if necessary (in qualifying)
7. drawing of lots (at the final event)

This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.

First round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Guinea-Bissau	1–4	Mali	1–2	0–2
Madagascar	3–4	Benin	1–1	2–3
Seychelles	1–5	Zambia	0–4	1–1
Botswana	4–1	Lesotho	4–1	0–0
Equatorial Guinea	1–2	Togo	1–0	0–2
São Tomé and Príncipe	0–9	Libya	0–1	0–8
Tanzania	0–3	Kenya	0–0	0–3
Niger	0–7	Algeria	0–1	0–6
Uganda	4–3	Mauritius	3–0	1–3 (a.e.t.)
Sudan	3–0	Eritrea	3–0	0–0
Zimbabwe	4–2	Mauritania	3–0	1–2
Swaziland	1–4	Cape Verde	1–1	0–3
Burundi	1–4	Gabon	0–0	1–4
Chad	3–3(a)	Angola	3–1	0–2
Congo	2–1	Sierra Leone	1–0	1–1
Ethiopia	1–3	Malawi	1–3	0–0
Rwanda	4–1	Namibia	3–0	1–1
Guinea	5–3	Mozambique	1–0	4–3
Gambia	2–3	Liberia	2–0	0–3
Somalia	0–7	Ghana	0–5	0–2
Burkina Faso	w/o	Central African Republic

Second round

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Togo 10 7 2 1 20 8 +12 23  Senegal 10 6 3 1 21 8 +13 21  Zambia 10 6 1 3 16 10 +6 19  Congo 10 3 1 6 10 14 −4 10  Mali 10 2 2 6 11 14 −3 8  Liberia 10 1 1 8 3 27 −24 4

Congo  – 3 – 0 1 – 0 0 – 0 2 – 3 2 – 3 Liberia  0 – 2 – 1 – 0 0 – 3 0 – 0 0 – 5 Mali  2 – 0 4 – 1 – 2 – 2 1 – 2 1 – 1 Senegal  2 – 0 6 – 1 3 – 0 – 2 – 2 1 – 0 Togo  2 – 0 3 – 0 1 – 0 3 – 1 – 4 – 1 Zambia  2 – 0 1 – 0 2 – 1 0 – 1 1 – 0 –

• Togo qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Togo, Senegal, and Zambia qualified for the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ghana 10 6 3 1 17 4 +13 21  DR Congo 10 4 4 2 14 10 +4 16  South Africa 10 5 1 4 12 14 −2 16  Burkina Faso 10 4 1 5 14 13 +1 13  Cape Verde 10 3 1 6 8 15 −7 10  Uganda 10 2 2 6 6 15 −9 8

Burkina Faso  – 1 – 2 2 – 0 1 – 0 3 – 1 2 – 0 Cape Verde  1 – 0 – 1 – 1 0 – 4 1 – 2 1 – 0 DR Congo  3 – 2 2 – 1 – 1 – 1 1 – 0 4 – 0 Ghana  2 – 1 2 – 0 0 – 0 – 3 – 0 2 – 0 South Africa  2 – 0 2 – 1 2 – 2 0 – 2 – 2 – 1 Uganda  2 – 2 1 – 0 1 – 0 1 – 1 0 – 1 –

• Ghana qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Ghana, Congo DR, and South Africa qualified for the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ivory Coast 10 7 1 2 20 7 +13 22  Cameroon 10 6 3 1 18 10 +8 21  Egypt 10 5 2 3 26 15 +11 17  Libya 10 3 3 4 8 10 −2 12  Sudan 10 1 3 6 6 22 −16 6  Benin 10 1 2 7 9 23 −14 5

Benin  – 1 – 4 0 – 1 3 – 3 1 – 0 1 – 1 Cameroon  2 – 1 – 2 – 0 1 – 1 1 – 0 2 – 1 Ivory Coast  3 – 0 2 – 3 – 2 – 0 2 – 0 5 – 0 Egypt  4 – 1 3 – 2 1 – 2 – 4 – 1 6 – 1 Libya  4 – 1 0 – 0 0 – 0 2 – 1 – 0 – 0 Sudan  1 – 0 1 – 1 1 – 3 0 – 3 0 – 1 –

• Côte d'Ivoire qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, and Libya qualified for the 2006 African Cup of Nations (Egypt qualified directly as hosts.)

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Angola 10 6 3 1 12 6 +6 21  Nigeria 10 6 3 1 21 7 +14 21  Zimbabwe 10 4 3 3 13 14 −1 15  Gabon 10 2 4 4 11 13 −2 10  Algeria 10 1 5 4 8 15 −7 8  Rwanda 10 1 2 7 6 16 −10 5

Algeria  – 0 – 0 0 – 3 2 – 5 1 – 0 2 – 2 Angola  2 – 1 – 3 – 0 1 – 0 1 – 0 1 – 0 Gabon  0 – 0 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 3 – 0 1 – 1 Nigeria  1 – 0 1 – 1 2 – 0 – 2 – 0 5 – 1 Rwanda  1 – 1 0 – 1 3 – 1 1 – 1 – 0 – 2 Zimbabwe  1 – 1 2 – 0 1 – 0 0 – 3 3 – 1 –

• Angola qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Angola, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe qualified for the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Tunisia 10 6 3 1 25 9 +16 21  Morocco 10 5 5 0 17 7 +10 20  Guinea 10 5 2 3 15 10 +5 17  Kenya 10 3 1 6 8 17 −9 10  Botswana 10 3 0 7 10 18 −8 9  Malawi 10 1 3 6 12 26 −14 6

Botswana  – 1 – 2 2 – 1 2 – 0 0 – 1 1 – 3 Guinea  4 – 0 – 1 – 0 3 – 1 1 – 1 2 – 1 Kenya  1 – 0 2 – 1 – 3 – 2 0 – 0 0 – 2 Malawi  1 – 3 1 – 1 3 – 0 – 1 – 1 2 – 2 Morocco  1 – 0 1 – 0 5 – 1 4 – 1 – 1 – 1 Tunisia  4 – 1 2 – 0 1 – 0 7 – 0 2 – 2 –

• Tunisia qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• Tunisia, Morocco, and Guinea qualified for the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

Qualified teams

The following five teams from CAF qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Togo	Second Round Group 1 winners	8 October 2005	0 (debut)
Ghana	Second Round Group 2 winners	8 October 2005	0 (debut)
Ivory Coast	Second Round Group 3 winners	8 October 2005	0 (debut)
Angola	Second Round Group 4 winners	8 October 2005	0 (debut)
Tunisia	Second Round Group 5 winners	8 October 2005	3 (1978, 1998, 2002)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

11 goals

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References