{"id":12011,"date":"2025-03-17T14:25:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/world-cup-2026-qualifying-african-campaign-resumes-after-nine-month-hiatus\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T14:25:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:25:48","slug":"world-cup-2026-qualifying-african-campaign-resumes-after-nine-month-hiatus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/world-cup-2026-qualifying-african-campaign-resumes-after-nine-month-hiatus\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026 qualifying: African campaign resumes after nine-month hiatus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Egypt<\/b> have the healthiest lead of any side, with a four-point cushion at the summit of Group A.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pharaohs captain Mohamed Salah was rested during the latter stages of the Afcon 2025 qualifying campaign, but the forward will hope to carry his rich vein of form with Liverpool into games against Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Salah will come up against new Leone Stars head coach Mohammed Kallon, and the former Inter Milan and Monaco striker has selected Manchester City&#8217;s new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c20l7d4z9wqo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">teenage defender Juma Bah<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c629njn0pqpo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">40-year-old Kei Kamara<\/a> in his first squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile, Sami Trabelsi is back for a second stint in charge of <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Tunisia<\/b> with the Carthage Eagles top of Group H by two points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Reigning continental champions <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Ivory Coast<\/b> have a one-point advantage in Group F, while new <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Kenya <\/b>coach Benni McCarthy is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c234my8k9gno\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">targeting a first-ever World Cup qualification<\/a> as he looks to reduce the five-point gap to the Elephants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Group D, <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Cameroon<\/b> are just one point ahead of Cape Verde and <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Libya<\/b>, who last week appointed Aliou Cisse as their new boss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Indomitable Lions are looking to add to their eight World Cup appearances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As things stand, the closest group to call is Group G, where the top five sides are separated by just three points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Vladimir Petkovic comfortably guided <b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Algeria<\/b> to qualification for Afcon 2025 but Les Verts face Mozambique and Botswana, two more teams who will be in Morocco in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Guinea and Afcon 2027 co-hosts Uganda are also poised to capitalise on any slip ups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c7433zj1wz9o\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egypt have the healthiest lead of any side, with a four-point cushion at the summit of Group A. Pharaohs captain Mohamed Salah was rested during the latter stages of the Afcon 2025 qualifying campaign, but the forward will hope to carry his rich vein of form with Liverpool into games against Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport-africa","category-world-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12013,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011\/revisions\/12013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}