Egypt confirmed its qualification to the final stage of the 2014 World Cup African qualifications with an impressive 4-2 win over Guinea at El-Gouna Stadium in Egypt. The game was a meaningless affair for Egypt which had already clinched first place in its group to reach the final round of the qualifications to Brazil. The game was held behind closed doors as the case is in all football matches being held in Egypt these days because of the security situation. It was moved from the Borg Al-Arab Stadium to the better secured El-Gouna Stadium. It was a lacklustre performance in the first half which saw the visiting team open the scoring just four minutes into the match. The own goal was scored by Egypt's Adam Al-Abd in his first touch of the ball. However, almost half an hour later, Egypt's European- based Hossam Ghali levelled the score for the home team in the 38th minute. So, 1-1 at half time. Minutes into the second half, Mohamed Abu Treika scored a penalty which gave the Pharaohs a 2-1 lead. Again, the Guineas equalised 2-2 by way of Seydouba Soumah in the 57th minute because of lack of defence. The Pharaohs then put on more pressure and launched a series of attacks from which Mohamed Salah netted the third in the 83rd minute before Amr Zaki sealed the victory as he sent home the fourth goal three minutes before time. With this result, the Egyptians won all their six matches in the qualifying stage and collected 18 points. They scored 16 goals and conceded seven. Guinea finished second with 10 points followed by Mozambique with three and Zimbabwe two. In other groups, Cape Verde Islands shocked Tunisia 2-0 in Rades Saturday to reach the Africa zone play-offs in the 2014 World Cup qualifying competition. Bottom Group A seeds Ethiopia came from behind to edge Central African Republic 2-1 in Congo and finish two points ahead of Bafana Bafana. Burkina Faso completed an amazing Group E comeback by defeating Gabon 1-0 in Ouagadougou and pipping Congo Brazzaville. The ‘Stallions' trailed the ‘Red Devils' by six points with three rounds to go, but three consecutive victories squeezed them through. Nigeria were another country to progress, scoring late in the first half and early in the second in Group F to defeat 10-man Malawi 2-0 in Calabar. Ghana beat Zambia 2-1 on Friday in Kumasi to book its place at the playoff of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Cameroon defender Aurelien Chedjou turned goalscorer Sunday to sink Libya 1-0 and move his country closer to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil. The Yaounde victory sealed first place in Group I for the ‘Indomitable Lions', who finished four points clear of their opponents. So, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nigeria joined Algeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroun and Ghana completed the 10-nation line-up. A seeded draw in LuxorEgypt scheduled for 16 September, based on FIFA rankings to be released Thursday, will create five two-leg ties with the winners going to the finals in Brazil. The 10 teams that will enter the final qualifying round for 2014 FIFA World Cup are known. A FIFA team inclusive of FIFA director of Competitions, Mustapha Fahmi and Gordon Savic, head of FIFA World Cup & Olympic Qualifiers Competitions, will be in Egypt, in Luxor for the draw. The 12 September FIFA rankings will be used to determine the seeding with the five highest ranked teams in one pot and the other five teams will be placed in another pot. There will be also a draw for each match to determine which team plays host first. The home and away play-off matches for the five (5) African representatives at the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 will be played during: 11-15 October 2013: 1st leg and 15-19 November 2013: 2nd leg.
