Ghana and Nigeria stunned in Cup of Nations qualifiers

But heavyweight contenders Egypt, Morocco and Senegal all won difficult away assignments, and there were home wins for Benin, Comoros, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia on a busy day of 17 matches in the preliminaries for the 2027 finals to be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Ghana, one of Africa’s 10 representatives at the World Cup where they reached the last 32, surrendered a 2-0 lead in a stunning 4-2 home defeat by Gambia in Accra.

Gambia, whose population is under three million compared with Ghana's almost 35 million, hit back through a Muhammed Badamosi penalty and goals from Omar Colley and substitute Ebrima ⁠Colley, who struck twice.

Ernest Nuamah and Felix Afena-Gyan had put the Black Stars two goals ahead after 33 minutes, but their collapse prompted angry home supporters to throw bottles onto the pitch in the closing stages. The result increased the pressure on veteran coach Carlos Queiroz after they opened their Group C campaign with a loss away to Ivory Coast last week.

Coventry City's Yann Gboho made a dramatic debut for Ivory Coast, coming off the bench to break Somalia's stubborn resistance in the final minute before Bazoumana Toure added a second five minutes into stoppage time to complete a 2-0 win.

Nigeria, who were semi-finalists at the last Cup of Nations finals in January, had seven Premier League players in their starting line-up but were comprehensively outplayed as they went down 3-0 in Guinea Bissau, where the margin of defeat might have been even bigger.

Franculino Dju curled home the first-half opener and captain Mama Balde made it 2-0 in the 66th minute. Alvaro Djalo added a third in stoppage time. ALGERIA FIGHT BACKAlgeria found themselves 2-0 down away in Burundi after 12 minutes but fought back to share the spoils in their Group I tie in Bujumbura.

But it was a ‌far from convincing ⁠performance under new coach Brahim Hemdani as Mohamed Belloumi and Adil Boulbina spared Algerian blushes. Cape Verde have now lost their opening two Group K clashes after Rwanda came from one goal down to win 2-1 in Praia with teenager Elie Iradukunda netting the decisive goal.

In the same group, Mali won 1-0 away in Liberia. Egypt, who left Mohamed Salah at home over fears of potential injury on the artificial surface at Juba in South Sudan, ran out 5-0 winners with Omar Marmoush grabbing a double and Mostafa Zico, Ibrahim Adel, and teenager Hamza Abdelkarim also on target in the Group B clash.

Brahim Diaz took advantage of sloppy defending to ⁠give Morocco the lead on the stroke of halftime away against Lesotho. The match was played in Bloemfontein, South Africa, because Lesotho does not have a stadium up to international standards.

Azzedine Ounahi added a second eight minutes from time to complete the 2-0 victory that put Morocco top of Group A.FIRST VICTORY FOR NEW COACH VIEIRASenegal had to defend tenaciously away against Ethiopia to give new coach Patrick Vieira his first win in ⁠charge after last week's draw in Mozambique.

Ibrahim Mbaye scored the game's only goal after 11 minutes, having been teed up by a pass from his Aston Villa teammate Nicolas Jackson. Mozambique went top of Group J on goal difference after demolishing Sudan 4-1 in Maputo with a double from striker Chamito, who plays his club football in Portugal's third tier.

Cameroon fought back for a 1-1 ⁠draw against Congo in Brazzaville while in the other Group G match, Comoros had a 1-0 home win in Moroni over Namibia, where Benjaloud Youssef scored early in the second half. The 2012 African champions Zambia beat Togo 2-0 in Ndola in a match halted for 20 minutes by a first-half power failure.

Rodolfo Aloko scored both goals for Benin in their 2-1 win over Mauritania and debutant Arnold Vula netted Uganda’s goal in a 1-0 home triumph over Libya.