Djibouti, Somalia make false start in AFCON qualifiers

CECAFA teams Somalia and Djibouti suffered defeats in the first leg preliminary round of the 2025 TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.

Somalia suffered a 3-0 defeat to Eswatini, while Djibouti lost 2-0 to Liberia, with all matches played in Morocco on Wednesday night.

The Somalia team tried to control the match, but found the going very tough against a strong Eswatini team. Sabelo Ndzinisa netted a brace, while Felicio Figuareido also got his name on the score sheet for Eswatini in a match played at the Ahmed El Abdi Stadium.

In the second match played at the Marrakech Stadium, Mohammed Sangare scored from the spot after 23 minutes, and skipper Murphy Dorley made it 2-0 for the Lone Stars later within the first half.

On Saturday another team from the CECAFA Zone South Sudan will battle Sao Tome and Principe at the Municipal Stadium in the Moroccan town of Berkane.

 The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that all the return legs will be played on March 26th, 2024.

The four (4) preliminary round winners will join the 44 exempted teams for the group stage.