adminLONDON. — The five African countries that qualified for the last World Cup soccer finals are all still in contention for a return to the 2014 finals as the continent’s final round playoffs begin this weekend.
Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria all participated at the 2010 finals and have advanced as group winners to the five play-off matches that will determine Africa’s representatives for next year’s tournament in Brazil.
Hosts South Africa were a sixth representative from the continent in 2010 but have been eliminated from the 2014 race.
Reigning African champions Nigeria and the top-ranked Ivory Coast start as overwhelming favourites but the others need to get through testing contests if they are to repeat their qualification of four years ago.
Nigeria play away against Ethiopia tomorrow in the first leg of their tie, with home advantage to follow in November.
The Ivorians meet fellow west Africans Senegal in a repeat of last year’s African Nations Cup qualification playoff, which was never concluded after the second leg in Dakar was abandoned following a stadium riot when Senegal fell behind.
The two protagonists clash again in Abidjan today and will play their second leg tie in neutral Morocco next month due to a ban on Senegal’s home stadium.
The series of playoff matches begins in Ouagadougou today when Burkina Faso seek to crown a year beyond their wildest expectations with a good home result against Algeria.
Burkina Faso were surprise runners-up at the Nations Cup finals in South Africa at the start of the year and have since staged a miraculous comeback in the World Cup qualifiers after being docked points in the preliminaries for using an ineligible player.
Cameroon, who are boosted by the return of Samuel Eto’o after he threatened to retire, but were a far from convincing group winner, take on Tunisia in their two-legged tie, starting in Tunis tomorrow.
Tunisia only made it to the playoffs when Cape Verde were stripped of an away win in Tunis last month because they fielded a suspended player.
The Tunisians have a new coach in charge for their second chance after former Netherlands captain Ruud Krol agreed a two-month contract in September.
Krol played in two World Cup finals and says he has told his new charges they are on the brink of a career-defining moment.
“The World Cup puts all other trophies in its shadow, the whole world is watching and the Tunisians must realise they have a tremendous chance now to qualify,” he told reporters this week.
Ghana host Egypt in the most eagerly anticipated of the five playoff ties, with the first leg in Kumasi on Tuesday.
Ghana have already ratcheted up the pre-match temperature by asking Fifa to move the November 19 return game from Cairo because of the fraught political situation in Egypt.
It is the first time since 1989 that playoffs have been used to determine Africa’s World Cup representatives.
Meanwhile, Cameroon have been boosted by the return of influential striker Samuel Eto’o for their 2014 World Cup final round qualifier first leg encounter against Tunisia in Rades tomorrow.
The now Chelsea striker announced his retirement from football after helping the Indomitable Lions qualify for the final round of qualification last month.
But after meeting up with government officials the forward went back on his decision and is ready to lead Cameroon to next year’s World Cup.
The Indomitable Lions have underachieved to say the least in recent years despite reaching this stage in the competition and it is fair to say that if Eto’o were to have been ruled out it would have been another huge blow to their chances.
Eto’o has now joined up with the rest of his teammates at a training camp in France as Cameroon gear up for arguably their biggest game since the 2010 World Cup.
Stephane Mbia and Cedric Raoul Loe, though, who are both based in Spain have been ruled out of the clash against the Carthage Eagles. Mbia who is on-loan at Sevilla from Queens Park Rangers picked up a toe injury in a La-Liga encounter.
Also out is Bordeux’s Landry Nguemo after a very light cardiac scare in his teams Europa League clash against Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Coach Volker Finke has called up Barcelona B young defender Macky Franck Bagnack to fill the defensive gap, while Kaiserslautern’s Mohamadou Idrissou who has been in superb form in the Bundesliga 2 has been recalled.
Tunisia caretaker coach Krol is in a race against time to prepare his squad for the vital clash.
Krol has included Marseille forward Saber Khalifa who was suspended for the last match against Cape Verde while attacking midfielder Maher Hannachi and striker Fakhreddine Ben Youssef were included from Tunisian outfit CS Sfaxien, who are incidentally also coached by the former Orlando Pirates mentor.
Karim Hagui and Aymen Abdennour, though, won’t take any part as they are suspended.
Tunisia will feel fortunate that they qualified for the final round after finishing second in their group following a defeat to Cape Verde in their last group game. The Blue Sharks, though, were docked three points for fielding an ineligible player allowing Tunisia to take over top spot and subsequently keep their world cup dreams alive.
Cameroon, on the other hand, beat Libya 1-0 in their final group encounter to seal their spot in the final 10.
The Indomitable Lions head into the encounter the odds on favourites having assembled a good record against their North African counterparts over the years.
In the 14 previous meetings between the two sides, Cameroon has won eight, Tunisia two while four games ended all square.
The last meeting between the pair was a 2-2 draw in the first round of the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola. — Soccernet.
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