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Nigeria finished third in their group
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Nigeria
scored two late goals to claim a frantic draw in front of a desperate home
crowd. But Congo's
1-0 win in Sudan in
Group A's other game saw them spring the big surprise in qualifying and take
the other automatic place behind the already-qualified South Africans.
The
Nigerians also failed to secure a place at the 2015 tournament as the best
third-place team across the seven groups.
Ivory
Coast and
Ghana left
it late, but managed to qualify for the tournament in Equatorial Guinea in
January and February, as did Guinea
and Mali.
The
Ivorians secured the point they needed with a 0-0 draw at home to Cameroon to
finish second to the Cameroonians in Group D.
Ghana won 3-1 win at home against Togo to ensure
they will be at the finals.
Needing
a win to get the chance to defend the title they won last year in South Africa,
Nigeria fell 2-0 behind in Uyo to a brace from Tokelo Rantie in six minutes
either side of halftime.
The
African champions gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Sone Aluko side-footed
home in the 69th minute after a shot rebounded off the South African post.
Aluko made it 2-2 deep into injury time with his second, but Nigeria couldn't
find a winner.
Ivory
Coast overcame any last-day nerves they may have had to draw with Cameroon and
just do enough earlier Wednesday. That result meant Democratic Republic of Congo's
3-1 win over Sierra
Leone in the group's other game wasn't enough for them to
qualify automatically.
DR
Congo did advance as the top third-place team, but they first had to sweat out Egypt's later
game at Tunisia.
Had Egypt won by two goals, they would have gone through at DR Congo's expense,
and the Egyptians took the lead in the first half before losing 2-1.
Ghana
made sure of their passage with goals by Majeed Warris, Wakaso Mubarak and
Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu against Togo in Tamale.
Guinea
qualified
second behind Ghana in Group E after a 2-0 win over Uganda at an
empty stadium in Casablanca in neutral Morocco. Guinea have been banned from
hosting qualifying games because of the Ebola virus outbreak back home.
Mali, a semifinalist at the last
two tournaments, also avoided a surprise elimination in qualifying when they
ended Algeria's
five-game winning run in Group B with a 2-0 victory in Bamako. Mali joined the
Algerians at the Nations Cup with the victory and ensured minnow Malawi missed
out after a 0-0 draw in Ethiopia.
Replacement
hosts Equatorial Guinea, top-ranked African team Algeria, Cape Verde, Tunisia,
South Africa, Zambia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Senegal had already qualified
for the continental championship before Wednesday's finale.
In
other games on Wednesday, Zambia
defeated Group F winners Cape
Verde 1-0, while Niger
held Mozambique
to a 1-1 draw.
In
Group C, Gabon
defeated Lesotho
4-2, while Burkina
Faso settled for a 1-1 draw with Angola.
Senegal defeated Botswana 3-0 in
a game which West Ham striker Diafra Sakho missed after complaining of back
pain.
Source:
http://www.espnfc.com
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