The majority of the preliminary round of qualifying for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is complete with São Tomé and PrÃncipe, Eswatini, South Sudan and Lesotho all sealing their spots in the group stage. São Tomé and PrÃncipe played out a thrilling 3-3 draw against Mauritius but managed to advance by a one-goal margin on aggregate, winning 4-3 despite playing both legs in Mauritius.
South Sudan and Eswatini had much less drama in their ties, sealing routine victories over Somalia and Djibouti respectively to expand on the leads they had built from the first legs. Finally, after playing out a scoreless draw in the first leg in Mauritius, Lesotho clinched their spot with a 3-1 victory over Seychelles in South Africa.
A report from BBC Sport Africa is below with the scores and highlights from a couple of Sunday’s matches further below. Gambia and Chad will wrap up the final matchup in the preliminary round on Tuesday in Morocco with Gambia holding a 1-0 lead from the first leg.
Mauritius 3-3 São Tomé and PrÃncipe (São Tomé advance 4-3 on aggregate)
Eswatini 2-1 Somalia (Eswatini advance 5-1 on aggregate)
South Sudan 1-0 Djibouti (South Sudan advance 5-2 on aggregate)
Lesotho 3-1 Seychelles (Lesotho advance 3-1 on aggregate)
