2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round

The preliminary round of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification tournament decided the four teams which advanced to the group stage of the qualification tournament. The preliminary round consisted of the eight lowest-ranked teams among the 52 entrants, and was held from 20 to 26 March 2024.

2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round
Tournament details
Dates20–26 March 2024
Teams8 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played8
Goals scored15 (1.88 per match)
Top scorer(s) Sabelo Ndzinisa
Mohamed Awad
(2 goals each)
2023
2027

The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format. The four winners: Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan advanced to the group stage to join the 44 teams which entered directly.

Draw

The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The eight involved national teams were seeded into two pots of four based on the FIFA World Rankings from 15 February 2024 (shown in parentheses).

Seychelles (199) and Eritrea (unranked) were excluded from the qualifiers.

The teams in bold qualified for the qualifying group stage.

Pot 1 Pot 2

 Eswatini (149)
 Liberia (152)
 South Sudan (166)
 Mauritius (177)

 Chad (181)
 São Tomé and Príncipe (191)
 Djibouti (192)
 Somalia (198)

Matches

The first legs were played on 20 and 22 March, and the second legs were played on 26 March 2024.

Team 1Agg. Tooltip Aggregate scoreTeam 21st leg2nd leg
Somalia 2–5 Eswatini0–32–2
São Tomé and Príncipe 1–1 (a) South Sudan1–10–0
Chad 3–1 Mauritius1–02–1
Djibouti 0–2 Liberia0–20–0
Somalia 0–3 Eswatini
Report
  • Figuareido 33'
  • Ndzinisa 45+3'
  • Thwala 56'
Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium, El Jadida (Morocco)
Referee: Andre Kolissala Mbangui (Central African Republic)
Eswatini 2–2 Somalia
  • Ndzinisa 46'
  • Matsebula 49'
Report
  • Awad 76', 84'
Mbombela Stadium, Mbombela (South Africa)
Referee: Joseph Odey Ogabor (Nigeria)

Eswatini won 5–2 on aggregate.


São Tomé and Príncipe 1–1 South Sudan
  • Leal 50'
Report
  • Elly 78'
Berkane Municipal Stadium, Berkane (Morocco)
Referee: Alhasan Bass (Gambia)
South Sudan 0–0 São Tomé and Príncipe
Report
Berkane Municipal Stadium, Berkane (Morocco)
Referee: Keren Yocette (Seychelles)

1–1 on aggregate. South Sudan won on away goals.


Chad 1–0 Mauritius
  • Thiam 90+3'
Report
Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium, Yaoundé (Cameroon)
Referee: Ahmed Hassan Hussein (Somalia)
Mauritius 1–2 Chad
  • Villeneuve 45+2'
Report
  • Hiver 74'
  • Hissein 90+10'
Cote d'Or National Sports Complex, Saint Pierre
Referee: Hassen Corneh (Liberia)

Chad won 3–1 on aggregate.


Djibouti 0–2 Liberia
Report
  • Sangare 23' (pen.)
  • Dorley 35'
Stade de Marrakech, Marrekech (Morocco)
Referee: Mehrez Melki (Tunisia)
Liberia 0–0 Djibouti
Report
Referee: Karim Sabry (Morocco)

Liberia won 2–0 on aggregate.

Goalscorers

There were 15 goals scored in 8 matches, for an average of 1.88 goals per match.

2 goals

  • Sabelo Ndzinisa
  • Mohamed Awad

1 goal

  • Ousmane Hissein
  • Amine Hiver
  • Mahamat Thiam
  • Justice Figuareido
  • Bongwa Matsebula
  • Kwakhe Thwala
  • Oscar Dorley
  • Mohammed Sangare
  • Jérémy Villeneuve
  • Luís Leal
  • Data Elly

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