The Egyptian dream of qualifying for the Africa Nations Cup in January 2015 hangs by a thread after a devastating 1-0 loss to Senegal in Cairo on Saturday. With six points, Egypt can finish no higher than third place in the group, leaving Tunisia and Senegal the honours of finishing first and second and thereby qualifying. Egypt's sole hope left is to beat Tunisia in the final qualifying game in Tunisia on Wednesday, no easy feat considering Tunisia beat Egypt 1-0 in Cairo in the first leg. A win for Egypt will give it nine points which may or may not be enough to qualify as the third best team in the qualifications. Already, for example, Congo in Group A and Guinea in Group E are third placed teams which already have seven points each with one game remaining. Also in third place are Malawi, DR Congo and Togo with six points each and one game left. Egypt is close to losing out on the ANC for the third consecutive time, missing out on the competition in 2012 and 2013, despite winning the title a record seven times, three coming in a row. England-based forward Mame Biram Diouf scored the only goal in the Senegal game only seven minutes into the match of the Group G encounter, heading into an empty net after goalkeeper Ahmed Al-Shinnawi badly timed his jump. Al-Shinnawi was injured in the process and replaced by Mohamed Sobhi. Although Cairo Stadium took in 30,000 fans — allowed by security forces for the first time since the Ahli-Port Said massacre of 2012 when 72 fans were killed in a soccer riot – the loss ended up with calls for the resignation of Shawki Gharieb, the coach, and all his crew. Tunisia booked their place at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals with a 0-0 draw away to Botswana in Gaborone . The victory helped Tunisia to top its group table with 11 points to give them the chance to participate for the 17th time at the Nations Cup. Tunisia, the 2004 winners, joins both Algeria and Cape Verde who had already qualified from their groups. Ivory Coast crushed Sierra Leone 5-1 in their qualifier to remain in the hunt to reach next year's finals. Burkina Faso, losing finalists at the last edition in South Africa in 2013, took the lead in Group B with 10 points to qualify for the fourth successive time since 2010. Angola and Lesotho remain at the bottom. Cameroon and Zambia sealed their places in the championship. Four-time winners Cameroon edged DR Congo 1-0 in Yaounde to become the first team to qualify from Group D with 13 points while 2012 winners Zambia snatched a place in Group F thanks to a lone goal against Mozambique away in Maputo. Cape Verde was the first team to qualify. The South Africans also qualified after overcoming a stubborn Sudan 2-1 at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Meantime, after a meeting held between Equatorial Guinea PresidentTeodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and President of the African Federation Issa Hayatou, it was announced that Equatorial Guinea will host the Africa Nations Cup 2015 and that its national team had qualified for the tournament being the host country. Equatorial Guinea thus takes the place of the original hosts Morocco which declined to host the tournament for fear of the Ebola virus entering the country by way of African fans. African football's governing body also announced that Equatorial Guinea will play in the tournament — despite the team being disqualified in July for fielding an ineligible player in a preliminary qualifier against Mauritania on 17 May. The four cities selected for the finals are Malabo, Bata, Mongomo and Ebebiyin. The draw for the finals will take place Wednesday, 3 December in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
