The format is what CAF used for 2014. 26 teams start in Round 2, and 28 teams start in Round 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(CAF)#Matches has the Round 1 matches, which will be from 2 to 10 September. The 14 aggregate winners and the top 26 teams will be drawn into 10 groups of 4. The group winners will play aggregates to determine the 5 qualifiers. October and November have Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, and the WCQ Group Stage starts in March. http://www.football-rankings.info/2019/08/caf-qualification-world-cup-2022.html has Round 1 probabilities: Zimbabwe* 93.11% vs. Somalia Eswatini* 82.40% vs. Djibouti Equatorial Guinea* 75.58% vs. South Sudan Rwanda* 74.41% vs. Seychelles Namibia* 71.44% vs. Eritrea Togo* 71.12% vs. Comoros Guinea-Bissau *66.47% vs. Sao Tome e Principe Mozambique* 64.76% vs. Mauritius Chad 58.90% vs. Sudan* Gambia: 55.80% vs. Angola* Botswana 54.65% vs. Malawi* Liberia 53.21% vs. Sierra Leone* Burundi 52.78% vs. Tanzania* Ethiopia 51.71% vs. Lesotho* I wrote that with the higher probability first, not to show who hosts what leg. The teams with the better FIFA Ranking are marked with a *, and those teams host the second leg. The formula expects the team with the better FIFA Ranking to advance in the first eight pairings and the team with the worse FIFA Ranking to advance in the last six pairings. By "first eight" and "last six," I mean the order I typed them in here. The pairings are not in any order related to qualification.
Here are first leg results from yesterday and today along with the dates of the second legs: Ethiopia 0-0 Lesotho (8 September) Somalia 1-0 Zimbabwe (Somalia's first ever WCQ win) (8 September) Eritrea 1-2 Nambia (10 September) Burundi 1-1 Tanzania (8 September) Djibouti 2-1 Eswatini (10 September) Liberia 3-1 Sierra Leone (8 September) Mauritius 0-1 Mozambique (10 September) Sao Tome e Principe 0-1 Guinea-Bissau (10 September) South Sudan 1-1 Equatorial Guinea (8 September) Chad 1-3 Sudan (10 September) Seychelles 0-3 Rwanda (10 September) In 11 games, no team scored more than 3. There are 14 pairs. Here are the dates for the 3 pairs that have not played their first legs yet with the first leg home team typed first: Botswana vs. Malawi: 7 September and 10 September Gambia vs. Angola: 6 September and 10 September Comors vs. Togo: 6 September and 10 September
https://www.youtube.com/user/FIFATV/videos has highlights. I'm not going to spend the time giving the individual links.
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/djibouti-spring-upset-as-world-cup-qualifying-begins-in-africa is titled "Djibouti spring upset as World Cup qualifying begins in Africa." It has links to highlights of Wednesday's eight games. https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/africa-world-cup-qualifying-round-1-matchday-2-3048946 is titled "Historic victory for Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda claim away wins." It has highlights of Thursday's three games. https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...o-african-world-cup-qualifying-review-3049056 is titled "Advantage Angola as Comoros and Togo share spoils." It has highlights of yesterday's two games. Botswana is hosting Malawi and the game is scoreless in the 75th minute. That is the fourteenth and final first leg. Edit: https://www.fifa.com/news/the-week-in-numbers-x7583 says: "14 matches winless in World Cup qualifying is what Sudan had gone – three draws and 11 defeats – until a 3-1 win in Chad. Ramadan Alagab became the first player to score a hat-trick for Sudan in qualifying for the global finals, 62 years after their first preliminary.." Botswana 0-0 Malawi ended.
Lesotho 1-1 Ethiopia (1-1 aggregate, Ethiopia advance on away goals) Tanzania 1-1 Burundi (2-2 aggregate after both games were 1-1, no goals in extra time of the second leg, Tanzania won penalty kicks 3-0 after the minimum 3 shooters) Sierra Leone 1-0 Liberia (Liberia won aggregate 3-2) Equatorial Guinea 1-0 South Sudan (2-1 aggregate) The other ten second legs are tomorrow. The Group Stage begins on March 23 or shortly after depending on how the games are spread out. March 23 is 195 days after tomorrow.
So, footballrankings predicted that 6 Pot 2 teams would advance, of which only 2 (Liberia and Ethiopia) did. The third team from Pot 2 that ended up advancing, Djibouti, was the second least likely to advance. Somalia, the least likely, nearly advanced too. This is quite useful, thanks. It really illustrates the significance of today's upsets (and near-upsets).
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/first-four-qualify-africa-world-cup-qatar-2022 is titled "First four win through in Africa." It has highlights of all four games. https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/ten-teams-journeys-will-continue-as-round-1-concludes is titled "Ten through as Round 1 concludes." It has highlights of four of the games. I wonder when the draw for Round 2 will be. Round 2 will have ten groups of four, and it starts in March.
https://www.fifa.com/news/the-week-in-numbers-x6289 says: "23 years had passed since Guinea-Bissau won a World Cup qualifier – they edged a Titi Camara-spearheaded Guinea in 1996 – until back-to-back victories over Sao Tome e Principe sent them into the second round of the African preliminaries for the first time."
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/belmadi-algeria-must-fight-to-reach-world-cup is titled "Belmadi: Algeria must fight to reach the World Cup." https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/news/djibouti-on-the-march-under-mette is titled "Djibouti on the march under Mette."
So... I was trying to think of good friendly opponents to make the Hex for our poor Canadian friends earlier, and was about to suggest Tunisia (ranked 27 by FIFA) when I remembered that CAF would start their second round in March and decided to look it up lol. Seeing as no one else here appears to have posted an update, I thought I’d just fill you guys in. As you know, 10 groups of 4, 10 group winners advance to final playoff round for the 5 spots, yards yada. Draw is on January 21, in just under two weeks. Probably not overly interesting, this round, on the whole, but worth noting that the Ivory Coast is in Pot 2 for the draw. Losing to Ethiopia in AFCON qualification looks to have screwed them out of a top seed. Unless CIV draws Mali or DRC, we could see one of Africa’s top sides go out early. Definitely the team you want to avoid from that second pot. South Africa is also in Pot 2, but I don’t rate them highly at this point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_CAF_Second_Round
Cameroon is eighth in the FIFA Rankings that were used, so Cote d'Ivoire got an easy Pot 1 team by that measure.
Considering the precarious situation that CIV were in I think they got off pretty well here. Not that I put much in the FIFA rankings but there aren't many better draws for them than Cameroon. Maybe DR Congo, even Mali I think I may rather avoid as they are an emerging golden generation. CIV certainly lucked out avoiding Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal, Morocco. I think those are the teams they would have really wanted to avoid. I think CIV will beat out Cameroon, they have a better squad, but we will see.
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/le-roy-coaching-in-africa-is-demanding is titled "Le Roy: Coaching in Africa is a demanding task."
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/malis-adama-traore-out-to-make-hisown-name is titled "Mali’s Traore out to make his own name."
Being a Ghanaian...seeing our group am I happy about South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia? Yes I am but at the same time I definitely do not underestimate South Africa that's for sure. Definitely do not underestimate Zimbabwe either. I'm just really, really, really praying my Black Stars qualify
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/mauritania-ramps-up-in-power-with-martins is titled "Martins' Mauritania on the march." https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/kassaly-daouda-niger-qatar-2022-3071834 is titled "Daouda: I still get goosebumps hearing the Niger anthem." https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/demte-european-challenge-and-ethiopian-dream is titled "Demte pursuing European challenge and Ethiopian dream."
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/gerald-phiri-firing-up-malawi is titled "Malawi's Phiri firing up the Flames." https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...al-guinea-africa-world-cup-qualifiers-3073076 is titled "Migne balancing realism and ambition with Equatorial Guinea."
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/stephane-sessegnon-devoted-to-benin-cause is titled "Sessegnon: The World Cup is a dream for Benin."
Benin is in a group with DR Congo, Tanzania and Madagascar...do they have a chance at qualification? Yeah sure they do but honestly I would say DR Congo has the best odds especially in that group of progressing to the playoff round
FIFA makes it sound like many countries have a chance, or if they have no chance like Luxembourg then FIFA says they're improving. Just like unions and other organizations defend their members, FIFA tries to make every country and player sound good. It makes sense because if FIFA was going to write that Benin has no chance, why would any Benin players comment to FIFA? When I post the article title I'm not saying I agree with the title. I think it's better to post the title than the link without anything else, and I'm not going to give my opinion about every article. DR Congo is the best in the group in the FIFA Rankings.
DR Congo is the most talented to and they just missed out on Russia last qualifying cycle just barely missed out so I think this time around they can qualify
https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...ge-world-cup-qualifying-qatar-kebaier-3073921 is titled "Kebaier: Tunisia's spirit key to World Cup hopes."