The road to the FIFA World Cup™ is invariably strewn with pitfalls, and African teams have found this out to their cost over the past few decades.
While the continent’s traditional powerhouses do tend to qualify regularly for football’s most prestigious contest, they are certainly not immune to the occasional slip-up.
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FIFA winds back the clock to revisit some the biggest surprises in African qualifying campaigns for the World Cup.
Having reached the tail-end of his international career, Abedi Pele still longed to perform on the World Cup stage. The 1998 tournament was set to be held in France, the country in which the gifted Ghanaian had spent the majority of his career – most notably with Marseille – and started a family.
At the end of the 1990s, the Black Stars boasted a starting XI that was packed with talented players such as Samuel Kuffour, Richard Kingson and Alex Nyarko. Drawn in Group 5, they got off to a shaky start that included a 2-2 home draw with Morocco, and they went into their crucial return match, during the fifth round of fixtures, versus Henri Michel’s charges in June 1997 in desperate need of three points.
In an extremely hostile environment, Rinus Israel’s men lost the must-win encounter 1-0, bidding farewell to their qualification hopes in the process. In their sixth and final group match, a completely out-of-sorts Ghana lost 2-0 at home to Sierra Leone, a result that only served to compound their fans’ misery.
In June 2004, Togo hosted Senegal, who had reached the quarter-finals of Korea/Japan 2002, in a pivotal qualifier for Germany 2006. The Lions of Teranga, coached by Guy Stephan, arrived in Lome brimming with confidence, while in the home camp, the Togolese supporters were unhappy with Emmanuel Adebayor after the Monaco forward paid a visit to the Senegal hotel to meet some of his club teammatesa few hours before kick-off.
The talented young striker would do his talking on the pitch, however, disregarding the critics, raucous atmosphere and high stakes to open the scoring in the first half. In the second period, Yao Junior Senaya would seal the unexpected victory with a brace. Papa Bouba Diop’s consolation goal nine minutes from time did nothing to alleviate Senegal’s sense of disappointment.
When the second round groups were drawn for the qualifiers for Germany 2006, most observers of African football expected Nigeria to finish top and make it to the World Cup for the fourth time. However, this prediction severely underestimated the tenacity of one of the less-fancied Group 4 sides, Angola.
The Palancas Negras had, up until that point, never qualified for the final stages of a major
tournament. They kicked off their World Cup campaign more in hope than expectation, but a solid 0-0 draw with Algeria and a surprise 1-0 triumph over the Nigerians provided them with the confidence boost and momentum they needed.
Neck-and-neck with the Super Eagles until the final matchday, Angola held their nerve and clinched their berth in Germany with a 1-0 win over Rwanda. Despite a resounding 5-1 victory against Zimbabwe, Nigeria would be forced to watch the tournament from home.
In 2010, South Africa hosted the first-ever World Cup on African soil. Bafana were still on the crest of a wave when they began their qualifying campaign for Brazil 2014.
Drawn in Group A, Gordon Igesund’s men were going reasonably well until the penultimate match day, when they suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Ethiopia. Bernard Parker’s unfortunate own goal in the 70th minute proved costly for the South Africans, who consequently relinquished first place in the section – and ultimately a spot in the third round – to Ethiopia.
At Brazil 2014, Algeria had caused a sensation by taking future champions Germany to extra time in the round of 16. Naturally regarded as the favourites in their qualifying group for Russia 2018, the Fennec Foxes, the highest ranked African team in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings at the time, failed to live up to expectations, drawing 1-1 with Cameroon and losing 3-1 to both Zambia and Nigeria.
In dire straits, the Algerians would eventually finish dead last in Group B, having collected just four points from their six matches.
